Showing posts with label tribeca. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tribeca. Show all posts

Saturday, February 16, 2019

The 1861 Condict Building - 55-57 White Street

daniel badger , italianate architecture
The 1861 Condict Building - 55-57 White Street



Cousins John Eliot Condict and Samuel H. Condict were both highly successful.  John was the principal in J. E. Condict Co. with his brother, Silas B., makers of leather "cavalry cartridge boxes, cap boxes, &c.."  He was also vice-president of Condict & Co., brokers in railway stock.  Samuel ran S. H. Condict Co. manufacturers of saddlery and military accouterments.   Samuel ran S. H. Condict & Co., which also manufactured leather accessories.

In 1860 the cousins began construction of the new headquarters for their businesses at Nos. 55-57 White Street on the site of two old structures.  Designed by the prolific architectural firm of John Kellum & Sons and completed in 1861, it sat on the corner of Franklin Alley (later given the more decorous name of Franklin Place).  At the time cast iron facades were rapidly coming into fashion.  The innovation enabled rapid construction, lowered building costs and was touted as fireproof.  Kellum turned to Daniel D. Badger's Architectural Iron Works to fabricate the facade.  It appeared in the founder's catalog four years later.  


Architectural Iron Works New York, 1865 (copyright expired)

The facade featured a few unusual elements--the side piers of the ground floor pretended to be vermiculated stone blocks.  They morphed into highly uncommon diamond-point quoins on the upper floors.  A handsome corbel table ran below the elaborate cornice.  The cast iron design was inspired by earlier stone versions, most notably in its two-story "sperm candle" columns, so-called because of their similarity to the thin candles made from sperm whale oil.  In fact, two years earlier Kellum and his former partner, Gameliel King, had designed a highly similar building in marble at No. 388 Broadway

Kellum clearly borrowed elements from his earlier marble building for the Condict building.

Both D. E. Condict & Co. and S. H. Condict & Co. moved in, along with commission merchants Sprague, Colburn & Co.   John E. Condict was more than a landlord to John H. Sprague.  The two were long-time friends outside of business.

The same year the building was completed the first shot in the Civil War was fired.  The national crisis was a boon for both Condicts who landed military contracts.   During the first year of the war S. H. Condict & Co. supplied the Government with $10,324 worth of gun-slings, cartridge boxes and other "equipments."  That amount would equal about $165,000 today.

The cost-efficient firm did not waste its remnants.  On December 22 1861 it advertised:  "To Shoe Manufacturers--A large lot of small pieces of Leather for sale, suitable for shoe manufacturers.  Apply at 57 White street, to S. H. Condict & Co."

J. E. Condict & Co., too, sold to the military.  During the fiscal year of 1865-66 The Government purchased $3,187.67 in "horse equipment" (about $50,000 today).  The business relationship with the military lasted beyond the war.  In May 1873 S. H. Condict & Co. placed a bid with the United States Navy for $5,32.50 in knapsacks.

Sprague, Colburn & Co. remained in the building following the death of John H. Sprague.  Shockingly, John Eliot Condict saw opportunity in the death of his close friend.  He approached Sprague's widow, Henrietta, and offered to help administer her finances.  The American and English Railroad Cases later reported "J. Elliot [sic] Condict had long been a friend of her husband, doing business in New York in railway securities, under the style of 'Condict & Co.'"  

In February 1870 Henrietta loaned Condict $25,000, taking his note in exchange.  Just before it became due, he suggested she buy $75,000 in bonds of the Madison & Portage Railway Company from him.  Condict put the $25,000 he owed her toward the purchase.  When she had received no interest by April 1879, she placed control of her affairs in the hands of John M. Whiting who dug into the matter.  No evidence could  be found that the railroad had ever received payment for bonds in the name of Henrietta A. Sprague.  A law suit followed which found Condict liable to return the funds, with interest, to Mrs. Sprague.  It may have been the publicity and humiliation that caused Condict to move his family to San Francisco that year.

In the meantime Sprague, Colburn & Co. continued  to represent manufacturers in its White Street showrooms.  In 1879 it sold the "dress goods, handkerchiefs, tie silk and grenadines" of Dohery & Wadsworth; and the silk goods of Jersey City makers Victory Silk Mills; Field, Morris, Fenner & Co.; and A. Pocachard.

In the 1880's two major firms occupied the building.  Commission merchant J. H. Libby & Co. was founded in Maine around 1838.  It opened its New York office in 1863.  The firm handled woolens and "domestic mixed goods of fine grades."  In 1888 Illustrated New York: The Metropolis of To-day commented "The business premises in this city are spacious in size, eligible situated for trade purposes, and are at all times stocked to repletion with new, reliable and valuable goods." 

Also in the building was Lawson Brothers, importers of "laces, embroideries, curtains &tc."  Founded by Robert Lawson in 1858, it now engulfed three floors of Nos. 55-57 White Street.  Illustrated New York said of the firm, "This house has long been recognized as among the most extensive importing houses in this line in the country, possessing every facility for keeping itself en rapport with the most famous of European manufacturers."

H. J. Libby & Co. would remain in the building at least through 1906; while Lawson Brothers left around 1896.  In its place was Campbell & Smith, merchants in cloaks, millinery, notions, fancy goods and hosiery.

By 1906 The American Mills Company had taken over the Campbell & Smith space.  The firm manufactured "elastic fabrics, elastic webbings, suspender and garter webbings, elastic braids and suspender braids" in its Waterbury, Connecticut factory.

Hoffman-Corr Manufacturing seems to have been the sole occupant of the building by 1908.  The firm manufactured seemingly disparate products: rope and twin, "cotton waste and candle wicking," and flags.  

Factory work in the early 20th century could be tedious and discouraging.  Many firms promoted morale by sponsoring company baseball teams, bowling teams and other activities.  On August 23, 1908 the New-York Tribune reported "The Commercial Athletic Association has set apart the afternoon and evening of August 29 for its grand carnival and athletic games, which are to be confined wholly to the members of the houses represented in the baseball league."  Among them was the Hoffman-Corr Manufacturing Company.

A massive two-week celebration of the 300th anniversary of Henry Hudson's discovery of the Hudson River and the 100th anniversary of the invention of Robert Fulton's successful steamboat was held in New York from September 25 to October 9, 1909.   Hoffman-Corr Manufacturing responded by producing "bunting flags," purported to be exact reproductions of the flag that flew on Hudson's Half Moon in 1609.


The Country Gentleman, August 26 1909 (copyright expired)
On September 23, two days before the events began, the firm advertised that it would remain open until 9:00 every night to enable customers to grab up their flags.  They were available in four sizes, from 4 x 6 feet to an enormous 8 x 12 feet.  The costs ranged from $1 to $3--the most expensive costing around $85 in today's dollars.

Two years later Clough, Pike & Co., importers of "mohairs" shared the building with Turtle Bros., importers of linens.  Both were foreign-based.  Clough, Pike & Co.'s mills were in Bradford, England; while the headquarters of Turtle Bros. was in Belfast, Ireland.

Harry T. Turtle handled the American operations, while Herbert S. Turtle oversaw the Irish side of things.  The well-respected firm suffered embarrassing press when Harry T. Turtle was arrested on the afternoon of June 6, 1912.  The bold headline in The Evening World read: Linen Importer Held, Accused of a $100,000 Fraud."  Special Treasury Agents Williams and Coffee had been surveiling Turtle since January 1910.  He was charged with defrauding the Government by undervaluing imported goods.
The Dry Goods Economist, January 13, 1917 (copyright expired_

Turtle Bros. was still in the building in 1919, a year after Herbert S. Turtle died.  But it was gone by the following year.

In 1920 the building was shared by hospital linens manufacturer Geo. P. Boyce & Co., and cotton and woolen goods jobbers Louis Bralower & Sons.

The building was sold in January 1922 for $140,000; about $2 million today.  The timing could not have been worse for the buyer.

On February 21, 1922.  Brothers Charles, William, Harry and Hyman Bralower were about to close up at around 6:00 when smoke was seen coming from the basement.  While they attempted to find the source, an automatic fire alarm sounded, bringing 15 pieces of fire equipment to the scene.  

The New-York Tribune reported the firefighters found "more than 1,000 tons of baled cotton on fire in the sub-cellars."  The heat was so intense that they could not enter.  "Instead they chopped holes through the sidewalk and poured tons of water into the cellar," according to The New York Times.  The acrid fumes forced the firefighters to work in shifts; but even that did not save 12 from being overcome.  Department physicians on the scene treated the men.

While a crowd of 5,000 spectators gathered, according to the New-York Tribune, the fire "spread to the main floor of the building and were rapidly penetrating to upper floors by air and elevator shafts."

Additional alarms brought a total of 18 companies.  Two hours after the fire broke out two complete companies of firefighters were still inside the ground floor, "trying to save large quantities of baled cotton goods," said The Times.  Chief Crawley suspected that by now the floor was unsafe and ordered the men out  "They had no sooner got to the street when the floor fell with a roar, carrying everything on it into the flames below."

It took firefighters three hours to extinguish the blaze, which caused damages equal to $2.9 million today.   But Daniel Badger's fireproof iron facade had proved to be just that.  While the interior of the building was severely damaged, the exterior needed new windows and a coat of paint.

Leather manufacturer M. Slifka & Sons moved into the rebuilt structure in 1923.  The firm made and exported purses, belts, wallets, and leather suspenders for military use.

Despite the recent substantial repairs, architects Schwartz & Gross were commissioned in 1929 to do a general renovation.  The changes resulted in a store and offices in the first floor, offices in the new mezzanine level, a stockroom on the second, and factory space above.

By the last quarter of the 20th century the Tribeca renaissance had reached Nos. 55-57 White Street.  In 1982 the Collective for Living Cinema was in the building; and in 1986 the ground floor itself became a piece of art.  Artist Karen Zuegner used the three central windows as a show entitled "Fragments of Life."  She filled each 10-foot high window with three-dimensional geometric forms in blacks, whites, and grays.  The New York Times critic Grace Glueck explained on April 25, "Their arrangement--representing her life--is helter-skelter, playing off the flat, orderly two-dimensionality of the glass surfaces, though a grand triumphal arch in the middle window pulls the whole tableau effectively together."

The gentrification of Tribeca brought threats to its historic architectural fabric.  On September 9, 1988 New York magazine reported "TriBeCa residents are outraged over a developer's plan to build a 33-story condominium tower--including a 9-story addition atop an 1861 landmark cast-iron building."  Virginia Millhiser proposed to demolish the five-story synagogue at No. 49 White Street and replace it with a tower, the base of which would form a bridge over Nos. 55-57 White.  The problem for locals was that the "1861 landmark" wasn't.

The civic groups prevailed, lobbying the Landmarks Preservation Commission to designate the Condict building an individual landmark.  Millhiser's project was successfully stifled.



Two years later the upper floors were converted to apartments.  The restoration of the facade and the fabrication of historically appropriate doors resulted in the building's return to its striking mid-Victorian appearance.

photographs by the author
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Thursday, February 7, 2019

The 1865 Woods Mercantile Buildings -- 46 and 48-50 White Street

tribeca , white street
The 1865 Woods Mercantile Buildings -- 46 and 48-50 White Street



White Street was opened in 1806 and soon was lined with comfortable middle-class brick houses.   The relentless northward expansion of the city brought commerce to the neighborhood by the 1850's.  By the outbreak of Civil War more and more homes were being replaced by factories and warehouses.

The White Street block between Church Street and Broadway sat within the developing dry goods district in 1865.  That year an impressive marble-faced loft building was completed on three lots at Nos. 46 through 50, built by dry goods merchants Abraham and Samuel Wood.

In fact, there were two buildings--No. 46 and No. 48-50-- which pretended to be one.   While at least one architectural historian gives credit to the striking Second Empire and Renaissance Revival blend to John Kellum & Son, there is no definitive proof of that.  The architect is almost universally listed as "undetermined."

Whoever was responsible, he did a masterful job.  A cast iron storefront supported four floors or white marble.  The united facade included square-headed windows and rounded corners separated by engaged columns--a general design which would be imitated in cast iron by scores of Tribeca buildings to come.  Two balustraded stone balconies clung to the third floor.  But the architect reserved the most eye-catching elements for the cornice.  A dainty corbel table ran below the modillioned cornice.  Within the centered, triangular marble pediment were carved "Woods Mercantile Buildings" and "1865."


At mid-century the marble cornice was painted black.  photo by C. T. Brady, Jr. from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

From the beginning it appears that the two buildings were joined internally, at least at some floors.  Among the earliest tenants was the newly-formed Wm. I. Peake & Co., importers and jobbers of textiles and cloth finished goods--like blankets, tablecloths, shawls and kid gloves.  The firm advertised its address in 1868 as "Nos. 46, 48 and 50 White Street."

William I. Peake had established his business in 1865 at the age of 49.  The fledgling firm grew rapidly, marketing its fabrics under brand names like Beaver and Buffalo.  In April 1870 Godey's Lady's Book, a women's magazine, praised the fabrics:

Beaver Brand Mohair--This article our women folk pronounced the most useful and beautiful material for ladies' dresses to be found in the country, and we have great confidence in their judgment...The "Buffalo Brand" Alpaca is another article which we can also strongly recommend.



David A. Lindsay, as well, started his business in 1865.  While he leased more than one floor, unlike Peake his were solely in No. 48-50.  Directories described his business as "manufacturers' agent, commissioner merchant and importer of dry goods, linens and white goods."

Another initial tenant was L. B. and S. H. Warner.  The brothers seem to have focused their advertising on personal transactions than business.  On July 9, 1868 an ad appeared in The New York Herald that read "A gentleman having lost one of a very fine pair of horses, wishes to exchange the other and a good family carriage for a matched team, black or bay, good size, sound and kind, not more than 8 years old.  Address or call upon L. B. Warner."

The following year on August 24, 1870 he placed another ad: "A superior pair of family carriage horses for sale--Black; 15-3/4 hands; eight years old; sound, kind and true; sold only for want of use.  Inquire of L. B. Warner, 46, 48 and 50 White street."

His brother was not immune.  A week earlier he had advertised "A complete family establishment for sale--Pair black Carriage Horses, 15-1/8 hands, sound and kind; large six seat Carriage, in first class order, also good silverplated Harness; price $1,600.  For particulars inquire of S. H. Warner, 46, 48 and 50 White street."

In 1871 William Peake reorganized his company as Peake, Opdyke & Co. and moved to Broadway and Howard Street.  Other dry goods and apparel firms soon took space in the White Street building.


The design--which potentially enabled the owners to expand the building seamlessly later--would inspire similar cast iron buildings throughout the district..

Cahm, Salmon & Fribourg, shirt manufacturers moved into No. 46; and the Manhattan Cloak & Suit Co. leased space in No. 48-50.

David A. Lindsay was still operating from the building.  In 1886 The Great Metropolis of the United States "The business occupies the lofts of a large and commodious structure, and the spacious and well-ordered salesrooms contain one of the largest and most complete stock of goods incident to the line to be found in the city."

The same year The New York Times profiled another highly-visible tenant, Barbour Brothers Company.  The linen firm was run by Robert Barbour and his nephew, William, and traced its roots to Lisburn, Ireland where John Barbour first established his flax mills in 1784.  In addition to its operation in Ireland, the it had mills in Paterson, New Jersey.  The business headquarters were in the Woods Mercantile Building and branch offices were in Boston, San Francisco, Philadelphia, St. Louis and Chicago.  The Times said "they manufacture and sell several times as much as all the other houses of the kind in America combined."

Henry Glass & Co. had been in the building for several years in 1915 when it leased the building next door as well.  On December 11 the Dry Goods Economist reported "Henry Glass & Co., importers and converters of linens and white goods, 46-48 White Street, have taken possession of the adjoining stores, at No. 44."  The article noted "With the three stores the firm have probably a greater floor area than that of any other concern in the line.  Their entire premises have been rearranged and redecorated"  Two years later the ground floors were joined internally for firm.


The Dry Goods Economist November 20, 1915 (copyright expired)
The Woods family retained possession of the property for nearly a century, leasing space through the first three quarters of the 20th century to related textile and dry goods concerns, as well as a dry dye manufacturer.

In 1978 a conversion to residential use was begun.  Completed the following year, it resulted in just four units above the ground floor retail space (the top two floors form a duplex).


The building's striking design and architectural importance earned it individual landmark designation in 1979.

photographs by the author
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Friday, February 1, 2019

The 1866 No. 97 Franklin Street

church street , franklin street
The 1866 No. 97 Franklin Street



Gardner A. Colby established the drygoods firm of Gardner Colby & Company in Boston in the 1850's.  When his son, Gardner Robert Colby, came of age, he joined the firm as a partner.  The senior Colby was also a major stock holder, along with Charles L. Harding and Jarvis Slade, in the Boston-based Merchants' Woolen Company.  The professional relationships of the four men would all come together in New York City.

In 1863 Gardner Robert partnered with Jarvis Slade under the firm name Slade & Colby.  Three years later he moved his family to the upscale suburb of East Orange, New Jersey to oversee the New York activities of that firm as well as his father's interest in Merchants' Woolen Company.

In 1865 both Colbys and Jarvis Slade began a real estate project in the rapidly changing Tribeca neighborhood.  The wooden structure at the southeast corner of Franklin and Church Streets was demolished and on October 2 a modern Italianate-style loft building was begun.  The Superintendent of Buildings listed the owners as "Slade & Colby" and the building as a "first-class storehouse" with "stone front."  It took dual addresses of  No. 97 Franklin Street and 257 Church Street.

The report of the Board of Aldermen documented the date of completion as April 28, 1866.  The architect of 97 Franklin Street, whose name has been lost, blended the Italianate style with elements of French Second Empire.  (He was almost assuredly the same architect who designed No. 247-249 Church Street at the opposite end of the block for Slade & Colby, begun on August 14, 1865.  The two bookend-like structures share many architectural elements.)

Ironically, the same year that Garner R. Colby moved to New York and No. 97 Franklin Street was completed, his partnership with Slade was dissolved.  In 1866 he and his father partnered with Charles L. Harding in the drygoods commission firm of Harding, Colby & Co. with offices in both Boston and New York City.

Perhaps surprisingly, the firm did not move into the new building. Instead it was leased to other drygoods firms, like importers Lane, Lamson & Co., one of the earliest tenants.

The Commercial & Financial Chronicle, January 12, 1867 (copyright expired)
Bostonian David Lane had married the daughter of John Lamson.  The two formed Lane, Lamson & Co. and now--like Gardner R. Colby--Lane moved his family to Manhattan to establish the New York branch office.  John Lamson died in March 1868 in Paris.

David Lane, now the senior partner in the firm, eventually became a prominent member of Manhattan's business and social circles, earning a membership in the exclusive Union League Club and living comfortably at No. 11 Park Avenue.   Upon his retirement around 1880 the firm was dissolved.

In the meantime, in May 1872 Jarvis Slade had sold his interest in No. 97 Franklin Street to the Colbys for $33,000, in the neighborhood of $683,000 today.

By then the Chicago-based wholesale drygoods firm of Bowen, Whitman & Winslow had been in the building for at least four years.  The volume of the company's business was evidenced by the theft of two bank notes on December 2, 1868--one for $5.607.13 and the other for $5,608.18.  Both checks had been made payable to Hoyt, Sprague & Co. and would total about $200,000 today.

The company issued an announcement regarding the stolen notes in The New York Herald on December 10 and cautioned the culprit "We hereby warn all persons against negotiating these notes, as payment has been stopped."

It did not take long for the thieves to be captured.  When 25-year-old James W. Tallmadge was arrested in a Cleveland bank trying to negotiate the checks a few days later, the mystery was solved.  His two teen-aged accomplices quickly confessed their guilt.

Sixteen-year old employee James. W. Morrison admitted to William H. Van Slyck, an executive with  Bowen, Whitman & Winslow, that he had taken the envelope with the notes off Van Slyck's desk.  He then passed it to William Lewis, an 18-year-old, who tried to sell them.  That did not work.

So Lewis gave them to Tallmadge, "a well-known character in Police circles," according to The New York Times, who tried to sell them in various cities.  Tallmadge professed his innocence, saying he had no idea that the notes were stolen.

The New York Times focused less on the admitted crime than on the system's failure to process the accused.  After Tallmadge had sat in jail for a week without being interrogated by a Magistrate, the newspaper railed on December 22, 1868, "Instances of such illegal and reprehensible detentions of persons accused of crimes are unhappily becoming quite frequent in the Metropolitan Police Department, and some measure out to be adopted with a view to the prevention of such willful outrages on the part of the Police."

Sharing the building with Bowen, Whitman & Winslow was Halsted, Lord & Co., makers of ties and bows.   The firm seemed to have been doing well, advertising in The New York Herald on February 24, 1869 for "First Class Hands Wanted--On bows, wide end ties, &c.; must bring sample of work."  And in August that year the company was looking for "50 first class bow hands."

And so it was most likely a conflict between the partners and not business troubles which prompted the firm to dissolve in December 1869.  William A. Lord continued the business, now named Wm. A. Lord, and a year later was still doing well.  In August 1870 he was seeking "scarf and bow hands" noting that "first class ones only need apply; work given out."  The mention of giving out work referred to the practice of allowing women to do piecework at home, therefore enabling them to take care of children.  In 1871 Lord moved his operation next door to No. 75 Franklin Street.

The Colbys lost their other major tenant that year as well.  On October 8, 1871 the Great Chicago Fire broke out.  It burned for two days and destroyed more than three square miles of the city.  Bowen, Whitman & Winslow suffered major losses, including the homes of brothers James H., Chauncey T. and George S. Bowen.  The firm did not survived and was taken over by two other woolen firms.

Sharing the building in 1875 were Loeb & Co. and Oppenheim Bros.  A well-known women's apparel manufacturer, Oppenheim Bros., headed by Albert D. and Charles J. Oppenheim, had operated from No. 46 Howard Street through 1874.  Now in its new location it aggressively beefed up its staff, looking for 100 "first class cloak finishers" and "a few experienced [sewing machine] operators" in October 1875.

Apparel manufacturers today use what is called a "fit model," a live person who tries on sample garments to make sure the patterns are correct.  Such was the case in September 1875 when Oppenheim Bros. advertised for "A young lady with a good figure and stylish appearance to try on cloaks and suits."

Either Oppenheim Bros. was doing a phenomenal business, or conditions in their factory were intolerable.   Only five months after it advertised for 100 workers in October 1875, it sought the same number of "first class dress and suit makers" on March 10, 1876.  The ad promised "high prices to good workers."  The company remained at No. 97 Franklin Street until about 1879, when it moved to No. 22 White Street.

It was about 1878 when W. M. Humphrey's, men's scarf manufacturer, moved in.  That firm was soon joined in the building by May & Mayer, wholesale woolens merchants, operated by Mayer May and Leopold Mayer.

The firm's good name was dragged into a scam by a teen-aged con artist in September 1882.  Isaac Strauss, 18-years old, went into the store of trunk dealer Charles Schwartz in early September.  He told Schwartz that he was a salesman for May & Mayer and was owed $200 in commissions.  Sadly, he owed a doctor's bill of $75 which he needed to pay.  Was it possible, he asked, that Schwartz might loan him the money for the doctor until he was paid by May & Mayer?  It was possible.

But when the boy never returned, Schwartz went to May & Mayer for he money.  There he discovered that Strauss was not an employee, nor did the firm owe him anything.  Isaac Strauss was arrested "to answer a charge of false pretense."

May & Mayer declared bankruptcy in 1883, replaced by the Dry Goods Association headquarters, and J. M. Valentine & Co., commission dry goods merchants.  Also in the building in 1889 were J. Falkenberg, "lambrequins" (the decorative drapery hung over doors and windows, or draped from a mantelpiece or shelf), the Medicated Rubber Co., and underwear maker A. H. Strouse.

Repairs were done following a December 26, 1889 fire.  The renovations cost around $33,000 in today's dollars; but only J. M. Valentine & Co. stayed on, apparently leasing the entire building.

The company suffered a near-tragedy on January 23, 1894.  The Evening World reported "Through the breaking of a cog-wheel this morning the freight elevator at J. M. Valentine & Co.'s wholesale cloth dealers, 97 Franklin street, fell from the sidewalk to the basement, a distance of about twenty-five feet."  Inside the elevator were 50-year-old Thomas Bell and 64-year-old James Prentis (described by the newspaper as "two old men").  Both porters, they were taking a load of freight in the elevator when it plunged.  Bell sustained a fracture of the left leg and Prentis suffered a broken ankle.  "J. M. Valentine & Co. state that the men were riding on the elevator against orders," said the article.

New-York Tribune, January 30, 1897 (copyright expired)

The New-York Tribune described J. M. Valentine & Co.'s broad array of offerings, saying it "does a large importing business in woolens, silks, linings, moreens; English, French, and German dress goods, cravanettes, mohairs, cashmeres and a large assortment of ribbons."  The article added that "the splendid exhibit in the shirt and drawer department renders this part of the great warehouse a most attractive and convenient place."

It was no coincidence that the building had other Valentines as tenants.  J. M. Valentine's son, Charles Abernethy Valentine, graduated from Columbia College and then studied architecture.  On August 1, 1895 he formed a partnership with William Orr Ludlow as Ludlow & Valentine, opening their offices at No. 97 Franklin Street.  Ludlow headed the engineering, structural and business end of the firm, while Valentine focused on the design.  Also leasing space was A. T. Valentine, dealers in domestic woolens.

In 1897 the massive drygoods firm of Frederick Vietor & Achelis absorbed J. M. Valentine & Co.  Established in 1828, Frederick Vietor & Achelis now added this building to its locations at No. 76 Leonard Street and 107-109 Worth Street.  That same year A. T. Valentine and Ludlow & Valentine moved out.

The Colby estate (Gardner R. Colby had died on June 20, 1889) sold the Church Street building in December 1898.  Frederick Vietor & Achelis had moved on by the turn of the century.

In February 1904, M. Gardner & Co. moved in.  The importing firm dealt in "union linens," among other goods.  It was founded in 1879 by Moses Gardner, a Polish immigrant.  He had retired in 1899 and only five months after his firm moved into the Church Street building, he died at the age of 85.

When the United States entered World War I a wave of patriotism swept the country.  Manufacturers, businesses and banks contributed monetarily to the war effort and urged their employees to donate.  Yarn merchants F. J. Hutchinson & Co. was at No. 97 Franklin Street at the time, and when more than 100 percent of its workers contributed to the Liberty Loan drive in the spring of 1918, it was honored with an "Industrial Honor Flag" by the Advisory Trades Committee of the Liberty Loan.

The committee explained "An Honor Flag, with six stars, was awarded to concerns having obtained subscriptions from 60 per cent of their employees, a flag with seven stars was given to those obtaining 70 percent, &c.  In cases where a one hundred per cent record was established an Industrial Honor Flag with ten stars was awarded."

Around the end of the war, the ground floor of No. 97 Franklin Street became home to the Scandinavian Building and Mutual Loan Association.  It remained through 1929, when it moved to No. 302 Broadway.  The move may have been prompted by the major upheaval caused by the city's expansion of the subway.   On December 3 that year the owners of No. 97, William H. and Thomas M. Claflin, sued the city for $25,000 in damages caused by the subway construction.

Dry goods and apparel firms continued to call No. 97 Franklin Street home through the Depression years, including Deering, Milliken & Co., and Cohn, Hall, Marx & Co.

The Tribeca renaissance arrived at No. 97 in the third quarter of the 20th century.  By 1976 off-off Broadway Tostos Theater was in the building.  Derlo Wilson's play, Now She Dances! described by The New York Times as "dealing with homosexuality, based on Oscar Wilde's 'Salome'" opened in May that year.

By 1979 the Process Studio Theater was in the building.  It presented A Pair By Guare, "an evening of one act plays by John Guare in May that year; and The Basement theater was below ground in 1982.  That year the upper portion of the building had been converted to apartments, just one per floor.  The Process Studio Theater was operating here at the time.  By 1998 Up & Co. art gallery had moved in.


Today the ground floor is occupied by the James Perse clothing store.

photographs by the author

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Thursday, January 24, 2019

The 1808 Icabod Price House - 35 Walker Street

Federal architecture , tribeca
The 1808 Icabod Price House - 35 Walker Street

Until 1905 the narrow gap to the right was described in property documents as an alley.
According to Ambrose M. Shotwell in his 1897 Our Colonial Ancestors and Their Descendants, Icabod Price and Susan Moore were married in New York City in 1804.  The timing suggests it was the same Icabod Price who, four years later, completed a handsome dwelling at what would be numbered 35 Walker Street.

Named for Congressman and Revolutionary War soldier Benjamin Walker, the street would not be officially opened for another year.  Price had purchased the empty lot in 1805.  A mason by profession, he most likely constructed the dwelling himself.   He faced the frame house in Flemish-bond brick trimmed with brownstone.  It was originally two-and-a-half stories tall, with one or two dormers piercing the peaked roof.  The splayed lintels and layered keystones at the second floor were attractive Federal style elements.

As was common at the time, a secondary structure sat in the rear yard, accessed by a horsewalk, or narrow pathway, at the side of the house.  While some were small stables or workshops, this was a secondary house.  

The Price family was still here as late as 1816; renting part of the residence to another family.  Another tenant lived in the rear house.  Not long afterward the property was sold to John Bennet.  In 1831 his estate improved it, and it was most likely at this time that the second floor was raised to full height.  The Flemish bond brickwork was matched; although the architect was less enthusiastic about copying the lintels and keystones. 

In the early years of the 19th century few women had the chance of higher education.  That began changing around 1820 when the concept of the female seminary emerged--one of the first seeds of the women's equality movement.  By 1836 Mrs. Lockwood's Female Seminary was at No. 35 Walker Street.  It was a short-lived venture, however, no longer appearing in directories after 1837.

The residence reverted to a boarding house and around 1844 a shop was installed at ground level.  On October 14 that year P. A. Lacoste, manufacturer and importer of "fringes, gimps, tassels, cords, &c." moved his shop from No. 413 Broadway into the new space.  His announcement in The New York Herald promised that "his customers, and the ladies in general, will always find a fine assortment of the above articles, on the most reasonable terms."

Among the tenants upstairs were "Mrs. Archibald," John Harrop (who received an award from the American Institute for "the best specimen of tortoise shell work" that year),  and Madame L. Manesca Durant.  

Madame Durant was the daughter of Jean Manesca, credited with being the first modern foreign language teacher in America.  She taught French from her rooms (decorously holding separate classes for male and female students).  An advertisement in the New-York Daily Tribune on November 1, 1845 read:

French Language--Manesca's Oral System.  Gentlemen are informed that a New Evening Class will commence in November.  Also, a Morning Class for Ladies.  Persons desirous of joining either of these classes are requested to call and leave their names.

Madame Durand invites those who would be acquainted with her father's inductive and practical system, to call and witness the Evening Class, which commenced in October.  Residence 35 Walker-st.

By the outbreak of the Civil War commerce was moving northward into the Walker Street neighborhood.  The shop where P. A. Lacoste had peddled fringes had been converted to a restaurant by the mid-1860's.  Two years after the war's end, owner Peter W. Longley hired architect Michael Dooley to make significant renovations.  He extended the building to the rear, joining it with the back house.  It was almost undoubtedly at this time that the up-to-date Italianate cornice was added and a new cast iron storefront installed.

Longley was apparently now looking for new tenants.  On June 25, 1867 an advertisement in The New York Herald offered "A restaurant for sale--For particulars inquire at No. 35 Walker street."  

His buyer was Daniel Ettlinger, who was the victim of an astonishing attack on January 21, 1869.  At the corner of Wooster and Bleecker Streets Charles Coffee, a butcher by profession, assaulted him.  According to The New York Herald, Ettlinger "averred that the accused, without the least provocation, seized hold of him, struck him and from his pocket drew a large knife, with which he attempted to stab him."  Ettlinger was able to fight back long enough for a policeman to come to the rescue.

"For a moment the ruffian was frustrated in his murderous design by the complainant himself, and were it not for an officer, who was fortunately at hand, the life's blood of another citizen might have been spilled," said the article.

The upper floors were leased to small firms like Haiges & White, importers of dress trimmings.  Although the partnership was dissolved in 1869, the Real Estate Record & Guide noted that "Frederick Haiges continues."

A female patron or employee of the restaurant placed a personal ad in The New York Herald on April 27, 1873.  "Lost--A locket monogram, 'E. R.'  The finder will bring to Ettinger [sic] 35 Walker street, Monday."  The reward offered would be about $211 in today's money.

Below the restaurant, in the basement,  was what was politely known as a sample room.  The term originated when grocers or provisioners branched out into selling liquor and a separate room provided potential customers the opportunity to sample the goods.  By now, however, there was little difference between a "sample room," and a "saloon."

On October 15, 1873 the owner advertised "For Sale--A First Class Sample Room; Good place for a German; will be sold very low.  Inquire at 35 Walker street, basement."  (It is unclear if the space continued to be operated as a sample room.)

Five years later it was Ettlinger who was selling his business.  His advertisement on March 4, 1878 read:

FOR SALE--An old established restaurant in one of the best locations down town, doing a good business; sold on account of owner and family going to Europe.  L. Ettlinger, 35 Walker st.

The upper floors continued to see dry goods and apparel businesses lease space.  A dress manufacturer here in 1883 was looking for what today garment firms call a "fit model":   "A lady as figure who is a natural 38."  And the following year the newly-formed Rosenstiel & Rosenfeld, "wholesale dealers in white goods," moved in.  Henry Sobel, "importer of notions," was in the building before 1890.

Ettlinger's restaurant space had become Gottlieb Grob's saloon in the 1890's.  The German immigrant lived in an apartment building on William Street; one which seemed to be cursed.  The Evening World, on May 4, 1894, explained the tenants "consider the house an ill-fated one, and talk of moving out.  But a short time ago a woman committed suicide there by throwing herself from a fourth-story window.  A few days later there was another death in the house.  Last week a man named Herring was crushed by a wagon and died there an hour later."

And now Gottlieb Grob's murdered body was discovered in his apartment on May 2.  His skull was crushed and his throat slit.  Police did not think robbery was the motive, since everything in the apartment was in order and only Grob's watch was missing.

Investigators were frustrated in the search for a perpetrator.  On May 5 The Evening World reported "The police are no nearer a solution of the mystery attending Gottlieb Grob's murder than they were three days ago."  One theory focused on Grob's brother-in-law, Jacob Staub.  Police heard reports that Grob had loaned him $400 and when it remained unpaid, he threatened to send the I.O.U. to Staub's father in Germany for collection.  The Evening World concluded "in consequent of which Staub swore to 'get even' with him a month ago."

Following up on that lead, a reporter "found Staub at Gottlieb's saloon, 35 Walker street.  He claimed to have owed Grob but $90.  He declared he had never given Grob a note, and that he had not seen Grob for two months."  The murder went unsolved.

In 1896 Adelman & Lieberman ran its small knee pants factory upstairs, employing just two men and a woman who worked 60 hours a week.  H. Abrams also operated a pants factory here at the turn of the century.  His two-man staff worked 54 hours per week.

On February 25, 1905 the Record & Guide reported that owner J. C. Lyons Building & Operating Co. had hired architect Adolph Mertin to make renovations which included extending the building into the former horsewalk.  The $5,000 project included a 3-foot wide, one story extension, new plumbing, new stairs, an elevator and "iron columns."   Interestingly, the domestic appearance of the upper stories remained untouched.

The building continued to house apparel firms for the next two decades.  Nathaniel and Aaron Kommel ran their garment factory here in at least until 1911; Berger & Windner was in the building in 1916, and K. P. Horowitz, clothing manufacturers, leased space in 1920.


The expanded 1905 storefront is visible in this 1940 tax photo.  New York City Department of Records
The structure was deemed "unsafe" by the Department of Buildings in 1924.  After the violations were corrected, the building got a a new type of tenant.  By 1928 it was home to the office and "plant" of the Bedford Aluminum Specialty Co.  The firm marketed "machine and experimental work, inventions designed, models, dies and tools, metal spinning and stamping, aluminum specialties."

The firm remained in the building for decades.  But major change came in 2004 when plans were filed by Cogen Architects, PC to convert the building for residential use for owner Cornice LLC.  More than a decade later, however, the renovations have not been completed.

photograph by the author
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Friday, January 18, 2019

The 1895 Holmes-Bromley Candy Factory - 83 Warren Street

renaissance revival , Romanesque Revival
The 1895 Holmes-Bromley Candy Factory - 83 Warren Street



J. M. Atwater leased the property at No. 83 Warren Street from Grace Church.  The building he erected on the site housed his extensive business of jellies, sauces, catsups, canned goods, and other grocery items "wherewith the epicurean palate is so deliciously tickled," according to Illustrated New York, in 1888.   The writer mentioned that "The store, No. 83 Warren Street, is in one of the most desirable locations down town."

In March 1894, 34 years after opening his business, Atwater sold the leasehold to the property to Hampton O. Marsh for $5,000.  Marsh, who lived in Morristown, New Jersey, immediately initiated plans to replace the old Atwater building.  His architect, W. G. Beatty, filed plans in May, calling for a five-story brick and limestone loft building to cost $13,000--about $382,000 today.   Beatty included a hand-powered sidewalk freight elevator and electric lighting in the plans.

Hampton O. Marsh would never see his building completed.  He died of a heart attack in his home on September 22 that year at the age of 63.  His estate forged ahead with the plans.

The building was completed by the end of the year.  An industrial blend of Romanesque Revival and Renaissance Revival styles, it was faced in variegated Roman brick and trimmed in limestone.  The no-nonsense cast iron storefront had none of the grandiose Corinthian capitals and other decorations of a generation earlier.   Brawny splayed lintels with prominent keystones adorned the openings of the second through fourth floors.  A row of five arched openings sat upon a delicately-carved stone cornice at the fifth.

The new building was leased to candy manufacturer Holmes-Brumley & Company.  The factory's boilers required a smoke stack, so W. G. Beatty was called back in January 1895 to make the alterations, which cost the Marsh estate a little over $7,500 by today's standards.

In February 1897 the estate sold the leasehold to Benjamin Sire for $5,400.   He would soon have to find a new occupant of his building.   On March 26 The Sun reported that Holmes-Brumley & Company was in financial trouble and Robert W. Bullock had been appointed its receiver.

The candy company had debts amounting to nearly half a million in today's dollars.  Bullock, who was just 28 years old and "bears a good reputation," according to The New York Times, had been a bookkeeper in the company.  He now took on the responsibility of settling the affairs of the firm; a psychological burden which may have been more than he could handle.

The first week of July Bullock complained to friends of a headaches and said he thought he would go away for a few weeks to rest.  That was the last anyone heard from him.  On July 16 The Times reported "Some alarm is felt by creditors of Holmes, Brumley & Co...Mr. Bullock has been missing for more than two weeks, and as a result the settlement of the affairs of the company is blocked."  The article was quick to assure "no one suspects that the young man has absconded...They fear, however, that he has either met with foul play or is seriously ill and unable to communicate with his friends."

Bullock had already sold off the perishable stock of the firm, and had arranged for an auction of the company's equipment and furnishings.  The auction went on without him; but the buyer of the company's safe encountered a problem when it was revealed that only Bullock had the combination.  A representative of the safe factory was called to open it.  Everything inside was in order--checks made payable to Bullock as receiver, and some cash.  The mystery of Bullock's whereabouts only deepened.

On July 17 the New-York Tribune proposed "It may be possible that Bullock, while laboring under some mental stress, has wandered away, and does not know what he is about or what he is doing.  He was an extremely nervous man, and was under the care of several nerve specialists."  Oddly enough, the newspapers lost interest in the case after the company's finances were settled.  None seems to have followed up on the story of the missing man and his fate.

The former candy factory became home to a drastically different tenant.  Robert A. Keasbey was a manufacturer and dealer in industrial supplies, including railroad and ship parts.  The firm was, for instance, among the top bidders in 1898 for supplies for the New York Navy Yard.  And it was the Robert A. Keasbey company which supplied the asbestos coverings for pipes in the two torpedo boats being built for the U.S. Navy in Elizabethport, New Jersey in 1903.

In September that year Marcus Stowe Hill took a job earning $15 a week as a clerk.  His had been an ambitious but sadly disappointing career to date and the new job was a distinct step down.  He had met his wife, Alberta, in Sidney, Australia and they were married on December 1, 1888.  By now they had two children.

At one point Hill had moved his family to San Francisco, where he was a commission merchant.  But he devised a scheme to make a fortune making Egyptian and Turkish cigarettes.  He convinced three friends to invest $7,500 and relocated the family to Japan where the cost of living was lower.  In 1901 he returned to America and hired an engineer to make a special cigarette-making machine.  But it never worked.

And so to make ends meet he accepted the job of clerk.  After having worked at Robert A. Kesbey just three weeks, Hill was no doubt humiliated when police entered the building and arrested him for non-support.  Alberta, willing to wait no longer for her husband, had arrived in New York with the children and gone directly to the police.

Hill pleaded with the judge "I asked her not to come here, as it costs much more to live here than in Japan.  She has $500 worth of diamonds and I hardly have a collar button."  Alberta produced her husband's landlady as a witness, but, according to The Sun on October 3, 1903, "her evidence was all in favor of the defendant."

Irene Kenney testified "He boarded for $6 a week because he wanted to save money to get back to his family, of whom he appeared very fond."  Alberta's suit fell flat.  "The Magistrate dismissed the complaint when Hill said that he would do the best he could by his wife," explained The Sun.

Not long after the messy affair, the Robert A. Keasbey company moved to North Moore Street.  Three butter and egg firms took its place at No. 83 Warren Street.  The first was the Consumers' Butter and Egg Co., which had been organized at Greenwich and Reade Streets in 1902.  Two years later, according to The Sun, "a fire drove it to 83 Warren Street."

The blaze came at an especially bad time.  Consumers' Butter and Egg Co. was already burdened with debts that amounted to $15,000 (about $426,000 today), according to the New York Produce Review on March 9, 1904.  Unable to survive, the journal reported that the firm would close its doors.

On May 4, 1904 the New York Produce Review and American Creamery reported that after 27 years at No. 81 Warren Street, J. D. Stout & Co. had moved next door to No. 83.  "The object of moving was to get a more modern building and a better equipment for the handing of butter, cheese, and eggs, which have been the specialties of the firm every since its organization," the journal explained.

The American Produce Review, May 1904 (copyright expired)

A separate article on the same day noted that De Wolff & Christiansen "have moved from 15 Harrison street down to 83 Warren street."  Both butter, cheese and egg firms remained here only until about 1913, when a far different tenant moved in.

The James Goldmark Co. was the New York agent for Holtzer-Cabot Electric Co., based in Boston.  Its extensive list of products included buffers and polishers, time clocks, motors and dynamos, fire extinguishers, and soldering compound.

Following World War I No. 83 became home to the New York branch of Chicago-based John F. Jelke Co., makers of oleomargarine.  The firm was looking for an ambitious young employee in the summer of 1920.  "Boy Wanted--Strong, willing, for stock room and shipping department; steady employment, $14 a week."  It would be a lucrative job for someone, the weekly pay equal to about $185 today.

John F. Jelke Co.'s oleomargarine was marked under the Good Luck label.
The following year a salesman was needed.  The firm's advertisement in The New York Herald on April 24, 1921 sought someone with "good record and high class references" to sell "popular food in Bronx and Brooklyn."  The candidate would have to "driving experience."  The ad concluded "If you are a business producer with ability and character, call early Monday morning, John F. Jelke Co., 83 Warren St."

The Warren Street block saw a wave of employment agencies take over buildings beginning in the early 1940's.   The Employment Agency Center Building opened at No. 80 in 1942, housing more than 40 agencies; and the same year the Edwards Employment Agencies, Inc, purchased No. 73 Warren Street.  That deal prompted The New York Times on May 19 to call it part of "the recent movement of many similar enterprises from Sixth Avenue."

On November 17, 1947 The Times reported that the trend had reached No. 83.  "Roberts Employment Service, 83 Warren Street, a new organization specializing in male and female positions in the mechanical, technical and building trades, has been formed by Edward Greenberg."

Employment services would give way to residential space by the mid-1970's (although not legally converted).  Unlike so many Tribeca lofts which were taken over by artists, No. 83 became noted for its musical residents.  According to Mike Katz and Crispin Kott in their 2018 Rock and Roll Explorer Guide to New York City, "Dubbed the 'Home for Teenage Dirt,' 83 Warren St. around 1977 was a residence for musicians Lydia Lunch, Bradly Field, and Miriam Linna; members of the group Mars; and writer and former WFMU DJ James Marshall."



Official residential conversion came in 1990 when the building was transformed for one apartment per floor.  But more than 113 years of change in the neighborhood has not greatly affected the appearance of W. G. Beatty's handsome brick factory building.

photographs by the author
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