Lafayette A. Goldstone's 1930 19 Rector Street (88 Greenwich Street)

 

photo by ZeligJr

In 1929, months before the Stock Market crash that would usher in the Great Depression, the Gening Realty Corporation broke ground for what was intended to be a 40-story office building at the southwest corner of Rector and Greenwich Streets.  Gening Realty Corporation was described as a "syndicate representing the General Realty & Utilities Company and A. M. Bing & Son."  On March 11, 1930, the New York Sun reported that General Realty & Utilities had financed a $3.35 million building loan for the project--a significant $61 million in 2024.

The article noted, "The forty-story building under construction at 19 Rector street [is] from plans by Lafayette A. Goldstone."  Goldstone had dissolved his partnership with William L. Rouse in 1926.  The highly successful firm of Rouse & Goldstone had designed dozens of substantial Manhattan buildings, most of them apartment houses.

By the time construction was completed later that year, the plans had been scaled back to 35 floors of offices and a penthouse apartment.  (In 1936, the penthouse was converted to offices, as well.)  Goldstone's Art Deco skyscraper was clad in beige brick above a two-story limestone base.  Numerous asymmetrical setbacks at the upper levels provided several terraces.

The two-story base, see here in 1939, is only moderately changed today.  photo from the Gottscho-Schleisner Collection of the Library of Congress

Despite the ongoing Depression, the offices filled with tenants.  Louis W. Abrons, the president of General Realty & Utilities Corporation, told the New York Sun in May 1933, "It is interesting to note that the leading applicants for space comprise, in addition to members of the Stock Exchange and Curb Exchange, accountants and firms associated with railroads and steamship lines."  

Typical was the brokerage firm John L. Morgenthau & Co.  It was headed by millionaire John L. Morgenthau, the nephew of former U.S. Ambassador to Turkey, Henry Morgenthau.  The firm had its offices in the building as early as 1932.  Among the few tenants not involved with brokerage or shipping were the Reynolds Metals Company and Dobbins-Trinity Coal, Inc.  In 1938 the Waterman Steamship Agency, Ltd. leased the entire 19th floor.  

Engineers with The H. K. Ferguson Company work at drafting tables in 1947 (top), while clerical workers occupy the mid-century equivalent of work cubicles.  The firm, which had branch offices in Cleveland and Houston, was industrial engineers and builders.  photo from the Gottscho-Schleisner Collection of the Library of Congress

The tenant list became more diverse after mid-century.  The 1950s continued to see shipping related firms like the American Railway Institute and the Pearl Assurance Company here.  But the Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Company occupied offices by 1951, and in 1959 Wood & Selick Coconut Co., Inc. and the Camp Fire Club of America were tenants.

By 1960, a major tenant was the New York Telephone Company.  Among its employees was chief telephone investigator Harold A. McElroy.  Among his responsibilities was performing court ordered wiretaps on suspected criminals.  

Late in 1961, McElroy was visited by Police Captain Anthony Obremski, who, according to McElroy, "identified himself as the new commander of the Third Division (Midtown)" and asked for his cooperation.  He told McElroy, "the third Division had a fund to compensate those who gave the police valuable information and that Mr. McElroy would get $100 a month," as reported by The New York Times.

Obremski telephoned McElroy "from time to time," who then supplied him with confidential information obtained through wiretaps.  Once a month a plainclothes officer would meet McElroy in the hallways of 19 Rector Street to slip him his $100.  He told investigators later, as reported by The New York Times, "he had not regarded the payoffs as bribes.  He said he had not reported them on his income tax forms because he looked upon them as gratuities, for helping the police cut corners."

In fact, Obremski was misusing the information being collected for legitimate NYPD investigations.  He was later arrested and charged with using "information about wiretaps to protect bookmakers who were paying graft and to shake down others," said The New York Times on August 11, 1964.  McElroy was suspended from his job but avoided prosecution by testifying.

In 1972 the West Side Highway Project moved into offices on the sixth floor here.  On April 23, The New York Times said, "An unusual amalgam of city, state and private talent is quietly at work here, drawing up plans for a new West Side Highway."  The planners were "quiet," said the article, "because opposition to some earlier proposals has been fierce."

Two years later, on March 26, 1974, The New York Times reported, "Despite protests from community planners, key state and city officials appeared ready yesterday to press for Federal designation of the entire Hudson shore corridor from the Battery to the George Washington Bridge as an interstate expressway route."  The project included replacing the "dilapidated elevated highway," and was the first step in the massive redevelopment of the Hudson riverfront.

In 1997, 19 Rector Street was purchased by Greystone Management.  On the evening of December 23, it "brought its own nonunion workers to the building," reported The New York Times.  "When the regular maintenance crew showed up a few hours later, they found that their jobs had been eliminated."  The 25 workers, some who had worked in the building for more than two decades, found themselves unemployed two days before Christmas.  The article continued, "The displaced workers said Greystone offered them applications for jobs with no sick time, virtually no benefits and lower wages--$8 an hour, compared with $15."

Importantly, the article mentioned, "The 37-story [sic] Art Deco building, built in the 1920's [sic], reportedly will be gutted and turned into condominiums."  Two years later, on November 21, 1999, the newspaper began an article saying, "Just when it seemed there couldn't be another conversion from office to residential in the Financial District, developers announced that a former office tower, an Art Deco skyscraper at 88 Greenwich Street, is being turned into rental apartments."  For some reason, the developers, The World-Wide Group, had decided to change the address.

The article said they, "are gutting the 38-story [sic] building at Rector Street, making 461 apartments."  Costing $100 million, the reconstruction actually resulted in 452 units.

A year after the building's opening, the World Trade Center was attacked on September 11, 2001.  Residents were faced with health hazards, difficulty in access to the building, and curtailed services.  On October 1, the tenants voted to go on a rent strike, "demanding break [sic] leases and to get reduced rents," reported The New York Times.  A class-action suit was proposed, based not only on the health and services concerns, but "on emotional issues."  A lawyer for tenant David Frazer told the reporter, "I want that mother who called with kids whose window looks out over the disaster site.  I want to put her before the judge."

In 2006 the building was converted to condominiums, called Greenwich Club.  Its residents would face another disaster in October 2012--Hurricane Sandy.  According to The New York Times, the storm's floodwaters, "dislodged an oil tank, which hit a ceiling beam and cracked open, necessitating a major cleanup."  In reporting on the downtown damages on December 5, MetroNews said the building "may not be habitable for months."

At least one resident, Jonathan Stark, went to court, filing a $35 million lawsuit in November.  The New York Times reported he accused "the board and managers of failing to safeguard the building against floods they knew were coming, then blocked residents' attempts to file insurance claims.  Managers have told residents they could not return for four months."  Repairs were eventually completed and the building reopened in January 2013.

In June 2016, the 9/11 Tribute Center moved into the ground floor of 88 Greenwich Street.  It had been located at 120 Liberty Street since 2006.

photograph by Tdorante10

Having survived a three devastating events--a depression, a terrorist attack, and a natural disaster--Lafayette A. Goldstone's Art Deco skyscraper survives nearly unchanged externally.

many thanks to author and reader Laurie Gwen Shapiro for requesting this post

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Henry Fernbach's 1868 52 White Street

 

In August 1866, a thief was apprehended in the store of Woolf & Sternback at 52 White Street.  The management pressed charges and the perpetrator was jailed in the Ludlow Street jail.  Two weeks later, the New York Dispatch reported, "On Friday evening a woman named Heyman...left her three children, aged nine months, two and a half, and three and a half years of age at the store of Messrs. Woolf & Sternback."  She told the clerk that the store was responsible for her husband's incarceration, "and as she had no means to support the children, she left them for the firm to take care of."

At the time of the shocking incident, the altered house in which Wolf & Sternback operated was slated for demolition.  The property had been purchased by brothers Mayer and Simon Sternberger who commissioned architect Henry Fernbach to design a loft-and-store building on the site.  Completed in 1868, the Second Empire style structure was clad in marble above the cast iron storefront.  Each floor was defined by an intermediate cornice and paneled pilasters at the sides.  A triangular pediment atop the ornate terminal cornice announced the date of the building's groundbreaking.  

Mayer and Simon Sternberger were the principals in the M. & S. Soap company, located at 190 South Fifth Avenue.  Although the first tenant to move into their new building was perhaps A. Langdon & Company, a wholesale boots and shoes dealer, almost all the other tenants were in the dry goods business.  In 1876 they included Alexander King & Co., importers and commission merchants; the Scranton Silk Co.; shirt maker Isaac Rosenstein & Co.; and the Magic Ruffle Co.

On April 20, 1883, the New-York Tribune reported that Mayer and Simon Sternberger had sold 52 White Street to Mrs. James A. Hayden for $114,000 (about $3.33 million in 2024).  Among her tenants were E. Spitzer's furrier business; and Adler & Schoenhof, which listed itself as "manufacturers of the 'IXL' and Victoria skirts, children's cloaks and suits."

They were joined around 1890 by A. N. Loeb & Co., importers and manufacturers of items like the Stuttgarter Sanitary Underwear.  By the mid-1890's, William Campbell & Co., makers of cotton and woolen goods; A. M. Warner  & Co., importers; and A. Friedlander & Co., which made ladies' waists and suits occupied space.  The latter firm was a large operation, employing 56 men, 34 women, and 15 teenaged girls all of whom worked 59 hours per week.

Arion Marcellus Warner was the head of A. M. Warner & Co.  Born in Connecticut in 1843, his firm imported household textiles, like "wool piano and table covers," Irish linens, napkins, and such.   He left the office early in 1897 suffering from stomach pains.  They became so bad that, according to The Sun, he was "confined to his bed fifteen weeks."  After three months of suffering, Warner died on March 30 "of paralysis of the stomach."  

The firm continued doing business at 52 White Street.  By 1901, when it employed two men and 26 women, A. M. Warner & Co. both imported and manufactured table cloths.  It remained until February 1, 1913, when the firm moved to 569-575 Broadway.

Textile and dry goods business continued to call 52 White Street home throughout the Depression years.  Among them were Arthur Bier & Company, who dealt in linings; and Lamb, Finlay & Co., Irish linen importers, here by 1929.

The Tribeca Renaissance caught up with 52 White Street in 1974, when the upper floors were converted to artists' joint living and working quarters (one per floor), and the former store space became the Collective for Living Cinema.  Founded in 1973, the Collective held filmmaking workshops and screened films weekly.

Patrons of the Collective for Living Cinema were treated to films not seen elsewhere.  In February 1976, for instance, it screened the 1934 Wonder Bar, a musical starring Al Jolson, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell, and Dolores Del Rio.  On October 18, 1985, The New York Times described the films shown here as "avant-garde, foreign and generally neglected films."

In the first years of the 21st century, the ground floor space  became home to the Manhattan Children's Theater.  Then, on September 19, 2011, jewelry designer Ted Muehling opened his shop here.  It was replaced in 2022 by the James Fuentes gallery.

photographs by the author

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The Doubleday & Beak Building - 49 Murray Street

 

In 1813, Joseph Stringham lived and worked in the Federal style house at 49 Murray Street that he leased from Trinity Church.  On August 11 that year, he advertised:  "A good, fast-sailing vessel, with excellent accommodations, will shortly be dispatched as a cartel for the Leeward Carribee [i.e., Carribean] Islands.  For passage, apply to Joseph Stringham, No. 49 Murray-street."

The property was acquired from Trinity Church by Hubert Van Wagenen, Jr. in 1844.  He and his family resided here until 1855, a time when the neighborhood was beginning to exhibit noticeable change.  Within a year or two, as loft buildings supplanted residences, Van Wagenen replaced the vintage house with a modern loft and store building.  

The five-story building was faced in stone above a cast iron storefront executed by Daniel Badger's Architectural Iron Works.  The segmentally arched openings of the upper floors sat on bracketed sills and wore molded hoods.  A stone cornice with a carved frieze capped the design.

It appears that Van Wagenen's first tenant was Doubleday & Beak, manufacturers of umbrellas and parasols.  A reorganization around 1866 resulted in the firm's name being changed to Doubleday & Dwight.  It shared the building that year with Joseph Walter's paper box company, which would remain for decades.

Doubleday & Dwight left in 1868.  In addition to Joseph Walter, the building's occupants were the saddlery firm of A. D. Dickinson & Co. (Asa Dickinson also ran a dry goods business at 8 Murray Street); importers James and William Conklin; and Bartlett Brothers & Smith, a glass business run by Homer N. and John B. Bartlett with David R. Smith.

The bookkeeper of A. D. Dickinson & Co. was Asa Dickinson's brother, Dewitt.  The New York Herald described his job as "a very responsible position."  The newspaper added that Dewitt Dickinson, who lived in a boarding house nearby at 1 College Place (today's Park Place), was "an educated and accomplished gentlemen and his relatives are of the highest respectability."

But the young man had a drinking problem.  The New York Herald explained he sometimes "drank to excess, so much so that he neglected his business."  Asa Dickinson tried to reason with his alcoholic brother, and "often expostulated with [him] and endeavored to dissuade him from pursuing such a ruinous course."

Around April 1, 1869, Dewitt Dickinson failed to show up at work and over a week later was still missing.  The New York Herald wrote, "the belief prevailed that shame and humiliation at his course of late had taken such deep hold upon him that he determined never again to see his brother."  At around 1:00 on the afternoon of April 12, Mary McMahon, Dickinson's landlady, heard a pistol shot, but could not discern where it came from.  Three hours later, suspicious that something was wrong, she tried Dickinson's door, which was locked.  Mary's husband found a police officer and they forced the door open.  They found the 26-year-old Dewitt Dickinson dead on the bed.  The New York Herald revealed, "the [pistol] ball had passed clear through the head, struck the partition wall, from which it rebounded, and lodged on the bed."

Asa Dickinson took on a partner, George H. Norton, around 1874, changing the name of the firm to Norton & Dickinson.  Norton appeared in court on September 26, 1874 to testify against Joseph Cowley and Philip Scherer.   The New York Herald reported that he accused Cowley of stealing and Scherer "with receiving five brushes and thirty-one horse blankets, worth $105."  (The amount would be closer to $2,780 in 2024.)  The stolen goods had been found in Scherer's possession.  

The following year another tenant was the victim of a burglar.  Barbey & Sons occupied the second floor where they manufactured fans--a must-have for Victorian ladies in the warm months.  On May 20, 1875, The New York Times reported that Barbey & Sons "was entered by thieves on Tuesday night and robbed of fans valued at $1,700."  It was a major haul, worth about $46,800 today.

Also in the building in the mid- to late-1870s were M. Reiman & Co., manufacturers of "absolutely pure French fruit syrup;" H. Siebold & Co., "importers of lithographic stones, &c."; and the New York office of German lamp and candle shade makers Hohenstein & Lange.

Hohenstein & Lange was described by New York's Leading Industries in 1885 as "one of the largest factories in Europe for the manufacture of every description of lamp and candle shades."  The New York office was run by Hugh Hohenstein.  New York's Leading Industries noted, "At his fine establishment in Murray street, can be seen a full line of these beautiful goods and which are universal favorites throughout the trade."  The firm also manufactured "fancy papers," "laces for paper boxes," and "the most elegant and artistic menu, Christmas and New Year's cards."

The Saddlery Hardware Manufacturing Co. operated from 49 Murray Street by 1890.  (It is unclear whether it was somehow connected with the earlier Norton & Dickinson firm.)  Among its executives in 1892 was a man named Dreher, whose 17-year-old son brought unwanted publicity to the firm that year.

On December 1, The New York Times sad flatly, "Young Dreher, whose father is employed in the office of a saddlery and hardware manufacturing company at 49 Murray Street, has been a disobedient and wayward son for over a year.  The great trouble with the boy, the father says, has been his disinclination to work."  

Three months earlier, the teen had found work at the farmhouse of Mrs. Charles Purdy in Red Bank, New Jersey.  The New York Times said, "He did not stay here long, as he was discharged for laziness."  Dreher came to New York City where he became acquainted with two "crooks," as described by the newspaper, one of whom, Charles Adams, was well-known to police.  Dreher came up with the plan to rob Mrs. Purdy's house.  He would show up, plead that he was starving and had no place to stay, and beg for a meal and a bed for the night.  He was sure Mrs. Purdy would not turn him down, and during the night he would open a window to allow his cohorts to enter and burglarize the house.

When Dreher arrived at the Purdy house, she was not there, but the servants let him in.  As planned, he let the teens in during the night and they made off with $500 worth of silverware and other valuables.  In the morning, Dreher sauntered out, telling the servants he was going to look for a place to live and work.  "Several hours after his departure the robbery was discovered, but no one suspected Dreher," said the article.

To avoid the suspicious appearance of two teenaged boys carrying a bulky bag of silverware on the ferry, they shipped it via an express company to New York.  The clever plan fell through, however, when Adams was arrested on suspicion by a sharped eyed police officer after he picked up the bundle at the express office at 94 Broadway.  "When Dreher was brought to the station house he made a clean breast of the whole affair," reported The New York Times.  Adams confessed to the crime and fingered Dreher and the other accomplice.  

Bernard Meiners, dealers in lithographic supplies, was in the building at the time, and Joseph Walter's paper box factory, now run by Joseph Walter Jr., was still there.   At the turn of the century, the Walter firm employed eight men, 22 women, a one girl under 16.  They worked 54 hours per week.  By then the printing establishment of Joseph Carroll was also in the building.

At around noon on October 29, 1900 the Tribeca neighborhood was rocked by a massive explosion.  The New York Times ran the headline "RUIN, DEATH; MANY INJURIES. / Drug House of Tarrant & Co., And About Twenty Other Buildings Wrecked."   The explosion occurred at the northeast corner of Washington and Warren Streets.  

Henrietta Gorman worked in the paper box factory.  The 18-year-old was taken to Hudson Street Hospital where she was diagnosed with "hysteria."

New-York Tribune, October 30, 1900 (copyright expired)

A bizarre story was that of Edward Bradley, who worked for Joseph Carroll.  According to the New-York Tribune he and his wife, Mary, met for lunch and, "were in front of Tarrant's building when the explosions wrecked the place."  The newspaper continued, "There was a shower of stones and dust.  Mr. Bradley says he heard his wife shriek for help, and looking around found that the spot where she had stood was covered with wreckage.  He could not find her, and reported to the police that he feared she had been killed."

But the following day, The New York Times reported that Bradley's former housekeeper "saw him on the street yesterday morning, and she declared that he had referred to the matter as a joke played on him.  He is not married and has no sisters or relatives by the name given, according to the housekeeper."

The Joseph Walter box company would remain at 49 Murray Street through 1908, and Bernhard Meiners was still here in 1929.  Rand, McNally & Co. moved in by 1912, and the following year E. Steiger & Co., publishers and distributors of school supplies was in the building.  Like Bernhard Meiners, E. Steinger & Co. remained through 1929.

The Publishers' Weekly, July 19, 1924 (copyright expired)

Exactly one century after his family had purchased the property, in 1944 Edward Van Wagenen sold 49 Murray Street to the Selmer Loft company.  Its ownership would prove much shorter.  The building was purchased by the Seaboard Twin & Cordage Company in 1946.

As was the case in 1858 when Hubert Van Wagenen demolished his house, the Tribeca neighborhood again saw drastic change in the last quarter of the 20th century.  A renovation completed in 1998 resulted in four spacious loft dwellings on the upper floors.  

non-credited photographs by the author

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Isaac F. Duckworth's 1865 41 Worth Street

 

Around 1802, a three-story frame house was built at 41 Worth Street between West Broadway and Church Streets.  In the rear yard was a two-story house.  By around 1810, the main building was operated as a boarding house, and in 1821  it became the Eclipse House, a porterhouse (a tavern and restaurant where malt liquor, such as porter, was sold).  

Among the residents in 1857 was Rose Buchett.  On February 13, 1857, the New-York Tribune reported, "At a late hour on Wednesday night a fire broke out in the apartment of Rose Buchett, No. 41 Worth street, but it was extinguished before much damage occurred to the building. The police say that the occupant, while in a state of intoxication, set fire to her bed. The woman was badly burned."

At the time of Rose Buchett's horrific accident, change was again taking place in the Worth Street neighborhood.  Dry goods merchants were encroaching into what today is known as Tribeca, replacing domestic structures with modern loft and store buildings.  In 1862 Phil Laos Mills, a successful dry goods merchant, inherited 41 Worth Street.  Three years later, he partnered with John Gibb to established Mills & Gibb.  Around the same time, Mills demolished the old building at 41 Worth Street and hired architect Isaac F. Duckworth to design a replacement.

Duckworth had only been listed professionally in directories since 1858, and then as a carpenter.  But he would design several striking commercial buildings in the dry goods district, some of which--like 41 Worth Street--with facades cast by Daniel D. Badger's Architectural Iron Works.  For Mills, he designed a five-story store-and-loft building in the Venetian-inspired Italianate style.  

The use of cast iron streamlined the construction process, while allowing Duckworth to embellish the facade with elaborate details.  While the storefront has been brutally altered, it almost assuredly had fluted Corinthian columns.  Blind balustrades ran below the second floor openings, and  quoins with projecting panels ran up the sides.  Above each arcade of windows, the iron was cast to imitate stone blocks.  The intermediate cornices between floors were given rope molding, which was duplicated around the windows and lintels.  Fluted columns, complex keystones (each with a finial), and intricate corbels below each intermediate cornice added to Duckworth's splendid design.

Upon the building's completion, Mills sold it to brothers Samuel and Abraham Wood, whose family would retain ownership until 1954.  Among the first tenants of 41 Worth Street was Frothingham & Co., dry goods commission merchants.  Headed by William Frothingham, the size of Frothingham & Co.'s operation was evidenced on June 29, 1865, when The New York Times reported the firm's sales for the previous year at $1,224.926, or about $22.7 million in 2024.

Sharing the building with Frothingham & Co. in 1866 were Steinberg & Friedberg, importers of "hosiery, gloves, and gentlemen's furnishing goods;" and Thorn & De Camp, auctioneers.  Like other auctioneers in the district, Thorn & De Camp normally liquidated the stock of dry goods firms, like the auction on June 5, 1867 of straw goods "comprising full assortments, in the latest and most desirable shapes, for ladies', misses' and men's wear."  But that was not always the case.  A month earlier, on May 9, Thorn & De Camp had held a "special sale of cigars, wines and liquors."

Occupying space here in 1875 were Thomas P. Remington, Jr. and his partner Charles Westerman.  Remington had established his American Manufactured Goods dry goods business by 1856.  He would come to regret taking Westerman into his firm.  On September 16, 1876, the New York Herald reported that the latter had been arrested.  The article explained that on January 21 the previous year, Westerman had stolen "a $5,000 life assurance policy...valued at $1,300, from Thomas P. Remington, Jr."

Before Elisha Otis's elevators became commonplace, heavy crates of machinery, stock, and other items were hoisted up hatchways--open shafts outfitted with a block and tackle.  The hatchways were dangerous in themselves, often resulting in workers falling to injury or death.  But the hoisting process added to the danger by necessitating at least one employee to position himself below the item being raised.  One such operation ended tragically at 41 Worth Street on November 15, 1878.

With winter nearing, one of the tenants purchased a cast iron stove.  The New York Times reported, "While James Ekin, aged 50, was engaged in hoisting a stove up the hatchway of the premises No. 41 Worth-street, yesterday, the stove slipped from the rope and fell with terrible force on his head, crushing his skull in a frightful manner."  Ekin was taken to the Chambers Street Hospital where he died soon after being admitted.

Working in the building as a porter at the time was Emil J. Deckenbach.  Described by the New York Herald as "a young man of good character and steady habits," he went to Sea Cliff, Long Island, on October 14, 1879 to visit his mother and sister.  According to his sister, he left on the train for Hunter's Point at around 5:00 that afternoon, "taking with him two peach baskets which contained fruit, and about sixty-three cents besides his railroad fare."  Emil would not make it home alive.

The following day, Emil's sister received a note from an undertaker telling her that he was dead and that his body was awaiting burial at the morgue.  According to the New York Daily Graphic, he had been found in an unconscious condition at the 34th Street Ferry.  The New York Herald added, "He was placed in a hand cart and removed to the Twenty-first precinct station house, where it was supposed that he was suffering from the effects of alcoholism.  The odor of his breath, however, did not confirm the suspicion."  He died at the stationhouse.

Emil's sister did some investigating of her own.  When she retrieved the body, the "face was scratched and swollen, as if from a fall.  The nose was cut, and there was a contused wound on the side of the head, besides a discoloration beneath the left eye," she told a reporter.  With police attributing his death to alcoholism and knowing he left her home "in good health and spirts," she went to the 34th Street ferry where she found deckhand Thomas McFarland, who told of finding Emil on the Hunter's Point side of the ferry too feeble to board without assistance.  He was placed in a ladies' cabin, "where he vomited and became unconscious," reported the New York Herald.  

The sister's sleuthing reopened the case.  On October 23, the New York Daily Graphic reported, "Coroner Woltnian said to-day that he would make a thorough and searching investigation in the case of Emil J. Deckenbach.  It is now believed from the bruises found on his body that after alighting from the train at Hunter's Point he was either knocked down for the purpose of robbery or fell from the train."

The Waterloo Woolen Mfg. Co. moved into the building by 1881.  Organized in 1836,  the firm's mills, which were in Waterloo, New York, produced "woolen goods for men's wear; shawls; carriage cloths."

In 1894, Herbert Barton Stevens co-founded the dry goods commission firm of Stevens, Sanford & Hardy, which moved into 41 Worth Street.  Born in Newton, Massachusetts in 1855, Stevens had entered the woolen business at the age of 16.  Typical of the wealthy business owners in the dry goods district, he was a member of the exclusive Union League Club and owned a Newport, Rhode Island estate.

Herbert B. Stevens, Brooklyn Life, July 6, 1895 (copyright expired)

The dry goods commission firm of Schoff, Fairchild & Co., occupied space by 1888.  The New York Times said it "represents some of the largest manufacturers of woolen[s] in the country."  As the Presidential election neared, on August 22, 1888 the newspaper reported that George M. Fairchild, Jr. "is strongly in favor of the re-election of President Cleveland, as are the other members of his firm."

Among those partners was Frederick L. Holmquist, who had been made a member of the firm in 1883.  The Sun said of him, "Mr. Helmquist's reputation has always been excellent."  But he would be the undoing of Schoff, Fairchild & Co.

On April 3, 1891, The Sun reported "Frederick L. Holmquist is no longer a member of the firm of Schoff, Fairchild & Co...A small strip of brass has been tacked up over Holmquist's name on the sign in front of the door, and experts are at work on the books."

A month earlier, bills which the ledgers showed as having been paid were presented as being past due, "and notes given by Holmquist in the firm name were discovered," said the article.  Internal investigation revealed that Holmquist had been "speculating in Wall street."  He turned out to be a poor investor.  The Sun reported, "It was estimated yesterday that Holmquist's losses by speculation were over $50,000."  (The amount would translate to about $1.6 million today.)

Schoff, Fairchild & Co. quickly attempted damage control, saying "Holmquist's speculations would not in any way [financially] embarrass them, and that there would be no prosecution of their ex-partner."  Nevertheless, eleven days later the Evening Herald of Duluth, Minnesota reported that Schoff, Fairchild & Co. had gone under.

A significant tenant moved into 41 Worth Street on May 1, 1902.  The Travers Brothers Company started out as a twine store at 104 Duane Street.  Now, according to Hardware magazine on September 10, 1906, it was "a large distributing and manufacturing concern, with three large plants."

One of the Traverse Brother factories was at 542 West 52nd Street, between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues.  King's Views of New York, 1906 (copyright expired)

In 1911 the H. W. Baker Linen Company took over the entire building.  Hiram Wilson Baker had co-founded the Boyce & Baker company in 1882, and in 1902 bought out his partner's share to establish the current firm.  It manufactured commercial grade linens for hospitals and hotels.

A problem with being affluent and well-known socially in the early years of the 20th century was that one's personal business was considered public.  And so when Baker and his wife Ella separated in 1912, the messy details became fodder for newspaper articles.  On June 15, the New-York Tribune reported that he had obtained a divorce in Reno, Nevada on the grounds of desertion.  The article said, "Owing to his wife's alleged persistent discontent, which, he testified, resulted in the breaking up of the home, they went to boarding.  Later she insisted on going to her mother's, in Brooklyn, and did so."  

Working for the H. W. Baker Linen Company in 1916 was 26-year-old bookkeeper Henry L. Steul, who was married that year.  The cheeriness of his new marriage turned to despair when, on the day he returned to work following his honeymoon, police walked up to his desk and arrested him.  The Bridgeport, Connecticut Evening Farmer reported on December 15, " He was charged with taking a $300 money order two days before his marriage.  According to the police, Steul said he spent the money in presents for his bride and for the honeymoon."

In December 1918, the National Hotel Men's Exposition took place in Madison Square Garden.  The Sun noted that H. W. Baker Linen Company "had one of the largest booths in the Garden."  At the exposition banquet at the Hotel Biltmore on December 20, Hiram Baker "was taken suddenly ill."  The Sun reported two days later, "He went at once to his home at 114th street and Riverside Drive, where he died yesterday morning."  Baker was 56 years old.

Association Men, June 1922 (copyright expired)

The firm continued to operate from 41 Worth Street for more than a decade.  Then, on October 20, 1939, The New York Sun reported, "Marcus Bros., cotton goods converters...have leased the five-story building at 41 Worth street...As soon as present alterations are completed, the lessees will take possession of the structure."

Marcus Bros. remained at 41 Worth Street through 1954, when, after owning the property for nearly nine decades, the Wood family sold it.  The building continued to be home to textile firms until the 1970s, when the Tribeca Renaissance saw artists, galleries and trendy restaurants taking over the former loft buildings.  

By 1975 the upper floors of 41 Worth Street were being used as residences, although the building was not officially converted to four cooperative residences until 1981.  In 2019 a rooftop addition, unseen from the street, added a fifth apartment to the structure.  The building was designated an individual New York City landmark in 2013.

photographs by the author

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The 1861 Nos. 79-81 Leonard Street

 

In 1859 William C. Walker and Marion Penman demolished the two story buildings at 79 and 81 Leonard Street (likely converted former residences) and began construction of a modern store and loft building.  Completed in 1861, its cast iron storefront included fluted Corinthian columns that upheld an entablature and modillioned cornice.  

The four upper stories were faced in white marble.  Worthy of a doge's palace, the second and third floor windows were capped with dignified Renaissance inspired pediments.  The second floor openings were fronted by elegant, blind balustrades.  The architect gave the façade the appearance of two buildings with quoins that flanked each three-bay-wide section, and by separate marble cornices.

Decades later, in December 1912, the trade magazine Silk would recall, "this immediate neighborhood in Leonard Street has been a Mecca for buyers of drygoods and silks for nearly three-quarters of a century."  And so, 79-81 Leonard Street filled with textile-related tenants.

Among the earliest was the dry goods firm of Van Volkenburgh, Bro. & Co., headed by Edward and Philip Van Volkenburgh.  In June 1864, it had an opening for a teen boy, the advertisement for which was specific:

Wanted--By a dry goods jobbing house, a boy, of from 16 to 18, to learn the business; one residing with his parents and bringing good references preferred.  Apply to Van Volkenburgh, Bro. & Co., 79 and 81 Leonard st.

Simultaneously, one of the brothers was looking to fill a personal position.  Directly under the advertisement for the teen office worker, another read:

Wanted--A Protestant coachman, to go a short distance in the country; must understand the care of a cow.  First rate reference required.  Apply to 79 and 81 Leonard st.

In 1871, the newly-formed Townsend & Montant, "mercantile auctioneers," leased a large space in the building.  Its purpose was to liquidate manufacturers' left over stock at the end of a season, or the inventory of businesses that had gone bankrupt or otherwise closed.  

Townsend & Montant would remain in the building at least through 1895, conducting sales of sometimes staggering amounts of textiles.

The Evening Post, October 8, 1872, (copyright expired)

An auction held in May 1876, however, was special.  The New York Herald reported on May 24, "This sale was ordered by the directors and treasurers of many of the greatest manufacturing companies in the country for the purpose of fixing a price for the goods to be offered.  For a long time past there has been no little want of confidence among the dry goods merchants of New York on account of the instability of prices."  The article called the auction "a very significant event in the annals of the dry goods trade of New York, the like of which is not recorded."

The commercial vibrance of the Tribeca neighborhood following the Civil War was reflected in the Leonard Street property values.  Olin G. Walbridge purchased 79-81 Leonard Street on February 11, 1882 for $102,500.  He resold it a month later, on March 17, for an $162,500.  Walbridge had netted an astounding profit of about $1.7 million by 2024 standards.

By 1895, the Germania Mills had its offices and showrooms here.  The firm's factories were in Holyoke, Massachusetts, and advertised, "fine beavers and overcoatings."  

At the time, the building was owned by the Very Reverend Eugene Augustus Hoffman, dean of the General Theological Seminary.  Although a cleric, he was immensely wealthy and owned vast amounts of property in the Tribeca district.  

In 1897, Hoffman leased the building to Deering, Milliken & Co.  Founded in 1865, it was among the largest textile firms in the country.  Extra space was sublet to tenants like W. Stursberg, Schell & Co., commission merchants.

Deering, Milliken & Co. remained in the building for decades.  An advertisement in Asia, The American Magazine on the Orient in June 1920, provided an exhaustive list of the textiles it sold, including "brown sheetings, shirtings, drills, bleached cottons, flannels, woolens, printed and dyed shirtings, voiles, organdies, poplins, etc."

The third quarter of the 20th century saw a renewal of the Tribeca district as artists moved into former industrial lofts, and restaurants and galleries took over the store spaces.  Although not yet officially converted for residential use in 1977, at least one artist had moved into 79-81 Leonard Street.  

On January 19 that year, The New York Times profiled Argentine-born artist Raquel Rabinovich, who had studied at the Sorbonne in Paris and the University of Edinburgh.  She created "subdued abstractions" in oils and "monumental glass sculptures."  On the third Thursday of each month, she held a lecture in her loft here.  That summer, the C Space gallery run by Marina Urbach opened in the basement of the building.

An interesting tenant took the store space at 79 Leonard Street in the fall of 1985.  The New York Times remarked on October 18, "The Socialist Bookstore, at 79 Leonard Street...has a vast selection of left-wing books and records."  

The store gave way to the New York Marxist School by 1990.  In March that year an exhibition titled "Femmes Vitales" opened, featuring paintings and sculpture by women artists.  Associated with the New York Marxist School was the Brecht Forum.  On April 17, 1990, The New York Times called it "a newer and more specialized theater space that serves as an artistic home to Jane Goldberg, its resident 'topical tapper.'"  The article explained, "It was the 'Stradivarian floor' that drew Ms. Goldberg, who spotted it while taking a course at the school.  But the homey, slightly disheveled space, with its battered upright piano and political posters, has just the right gemutlich quality for Ms. Goldberg's zany tap."

The Brech Forum made way for the TriBeCa Lab, a small theater, around 1992.  In May that year Upright Citizens Brigade was staged here, and in October Criminals in Love opened.

The upper floors of the dignified marble building were officially converted to residential use in 2011.  A duplex apartment engulfs the second and third floors.  There is one sprawling apartment on the fourth, another duplex on the fifth, and a new penthouse level on part of the roof.

photographs by the author

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The 1892 Postal Telegraph Building - 253 Broadway

 

photo by epicgenius

Born in Dublin, Ireland in 1831, John William Mackay was brought to America as an infant by his parents.  They lived in the notorious and impoverished Five Points district.  Mackay's father died when he was a boy, and he survived by selling newspapers.

At the age of 20, he struck out to the West to find his fortune in prospecting.  Working for $4 a day in the Comstock Lode mine, he judiciously used his earnings to buy small claims.  In 1865 he hit a vein that earned him $1.6 million--nearly $30 million in 2024.  Not content, the formerly penniless immigrant partnered with James Graham Fair, William S. O'Brien and James C. Flood and increased their operations, emerging as three of the wealthiest men in America.

In 1884, Mackay partnered with publisher James Gordon Bennett, Jr. to organize the Commercial Cable Company to lay and operate the trans-Atlantic cable--a direct competitor of Jay Gould's Western Union operation.  When Western Union refused to relay cables initiated by Commercial Cable, MacKay purchased the Postal Telegraph Company and began buying up and consolidating other small telegraph companies until, by 1886, his firm was an equal to Western Union.

On March 23, 1892, the Postal Telegraph Company secured the land lease from Trinity Church for the northwest corner of Broadway and Murray Streets.  (The property was originally part of the tract known as "the Queen's Farm," granted to Trinity Church in 1705 by Queen Anne.)  The firm of George Edward Harding & Gooch was commissioned to design the 14-story skyscraper on the site.  The architects' neo-Renaissance design included striking and unexpected elements, like the 30-foot-wide, three-story recessed entrance; the 12th-floor loggia; and the bold copper-bronze cornice.

photo by epicgenius

The building was initially home to both The Postal Telegraph-Cable Company and The Commercial Cable Company.  The ground floor would house mainly the shipping, delivery and warehouse operations.  The second floor was designed for a bank, and the third through ninth floors held rental space.  The companies' executive and administrative offices would be on the tenth and eleventh floors, while the 19-foot-high twelfth floor would hold the switchboards and transmitting and receiving apparatus.  Atop the roof and unseen from the street, the fourteenth floor was leased to the Hardware Club.

An announcement anticipated the projected building eight months after the corner was leased.  The Sun, October 9, 1892 (copyright expired)

On October 30, 1893, a year after ground was broken, tragedy occurred on the job site.   That afternoon a homeless man, Thomas Bradley walked into the construction site.  The New-York Tribune described him as "a tall, famished, hollow-eyed creature, dressed like a scarecrow in needy circumstances."  He told the construction superintendent, Frederick Lewis Mathes simply, "My name's Bradley--I want work."  

The New York Times reported, "Not wishing to have any tramps about," Mathes ordered him out.  Bradley left, but returned six hours later.  According to the New-York Tribune, Mathes spat, "You scoundrel.  I warned you to keep away from this place!  How dare you come back?"  And with that Bradley pointed a revolver at the superintendent and fired, killing him.  The murder was followed by a shoot-out with police before Bradley was apprehended.

A week before the Postal Telegraph-Cable Company signed its lease on the property, The Home Life Insurance Company had acquired the lot next door a week earlier.  The two buildings rose simultaneously, their architects paying no heed to what the other had designed.  The disparate results angered some architectural critics, the Record & Guide complaining they were "an ill-matched couple."

The Real Estate Record & Guide captioned this rendering, "An Ill-Matched Couple" on October 6, 1894 (copyright expired)

Slowed by a construction strike, the Postal Telegraph Building was completed in the spring of 1894.  On June 19, the New-York Tribune reported, "The Postal Telegraph-Cable Company and the Commercial Cable Company, having got well settled int the big new Postal Telegraph Building, No. 253 Broadway at Murray-st, last evening invited [guests and press] to inspect the new structure."

The journalist was more impressed with the building's modern technology than its decorations.  "The building has its own dynamos, and the interior is simply studded with electric lights," he wrote.  "The elevators are of a new and improved kind, being, indeed, the first made after the design.  They are run by electricity.  A new device for signalling [sic] is used on them, so that one presses the button instead of shouting 'up' or 'down'--often too late to stop the car."

Female employees enjoyed electric lighting in the new building.  (original source unknown)

Two weeks earlier, the Hardware Club had opened.  On June 1, 1894, The New York Times described, "The rooms are finished in mahogany, and furnished with solid mahogany furniture.  Where not of mosaic tiling, the floors are carpeted with rich Wilton, in harmony with the ceiling and the wall decorations."  Along the Murray Street side were the club's dining rooms, capable of seating 200 persons.  "By going from room to room, one may see the entire city, bay and harbor of New-York, with portions of Brooklyn and New-Jersey," said the article.

Two years after the building's completion, John W. Mackay rehired Harding & Gooch to design a separate building for the Commercial Cable Company on Broad Street.  

George Edward Harding was an ardent promoter of concrete floors as a fire-proofing method, and had used them in the construction of the Postal Telegraph Building.  (He did the same with the Commercial Cable Company Building.)  His precautions proved well-founded in 1898 when an explosion occurred next door to the Home Life Insurance Building on the night of December 4.  The Illustrated American wrote, "In an incredibly short space of time the whole building was a seething mass of flames seeking fresh food.  They found it in the adjacent structure of sixteen stories, known as the Home Life Insurance Building."

George Edward Harding surveyed the scene a few days later, telling a newspaper that the Postal Telegraph Building was "saved by its cement floors."  The Record & Guide agreed, writing on December 10, "The fire was unable to gain any headway in the Postal Telegraph Building, chiefly owning to the incombustible nature of its floors."

Real Estate Record & Guide, December 10, 1898 (copyright expired) 

Concrete floors could not stop a blaze from beginning within the building, however (although it prevented it from spreading).  At 9:25 on the night of October 16, 1900, a fire broke out in a storeroom of the Hardware Club.  The New York Times mentioned, "The Hardware Club is one of the most expensively appointed clubs in the lower part of the city.  It leases the entire fourteenth floor of the Postal Telegraph Building.  A number of valuable rugs and paintings were damaged by smoke and water."  Firefighters fought the blaze for 45 minutes before finally extinguishing it.  

Although the Hardware Club was closed for two weeks for repairs, Gooch's concrete floors had done their job again.  Edgar C. Bradley, vice-president of the Postal Telegraph Company, told a reporter from the New-York Tribune the next day, "At 9:30 this morning we are carrying on business as we were at this hour yesterday morning.  Not a single operator has been thrown out of work by last night's fire."

In 1928, following its merger with the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation, the Postal Telegraph Company left its headquarters  and moved to 67 Broad Street.   

Nine years later, on July 8, 1937, The New York Times reported that "the entire interior of the building has been rebuilt.  It now conforms to present-day building and fire regulations and offers modern, up-to-date office accommodations."  Architect Ely Jacques Kahn had designed the renovations.  The article said, "Outstanding among the changes affected on the exterior is the erection of a three-story loggia of glass brick encircled just above the first story by a six-foot, blue-glass panel."  It added, "The renovated structure will be known as the Paragon Building.

Ironically, two years later, on April 22, 1939, The New York Times reported that the Postal Telegraph Company had moved back into its former home, leasing six floors of the building from Trinity Church, the current owner.  A representative explained the firm was "returning to 253 Broadway because the building was built to accommodate the company's telegraphic requirements."

The arrangement would not last long.  When the Foreign Funds Control (the investigating unit of the Treasury Department), moved into 253 Broadway in February 1942, The New York Times reported, "The new location, a fourteen-story building, is entirely occupied by government agencies."  But that, too, would soon change.

Four years later, on November 24, 1946, The New York Times reported, "In one of the largest transactions of the year in the 'downtown' district the Home Life Insurance Company acquired the fourteen-story office building at 253 Broadway...from the Trinity Church Corporation for an indicated cash price of more than $1,700,000."  The article noted, "Ownership of the combined buildings will remove the necessity for construction of a new home office."  Joined internally, the two 1892 structures took the name of the Home Life Insurance Building.

photo by beyond my ken

The Home Life Insurance Company sold the building in October 1985 to the newly formed 253 Broadway Associates.  Purchased by the city in 1988 for $26 million, the combined buildings were designated an individual landmark in 1991.

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