The Lost W. H. Jackson Building - 31 East 17th Street

 

The narrow W. h. Jackson Building towered above his neighbors.  from the collection of the Library of Congress (cropped)

In the first years after the Civil War, commerce began invading the refined residential Union Square neighborhood.  The mansions that ringed the park--with its iron fencing and ornamental fountain--were converted one-by-one to high end shops as their former residents fled northward.  In as early as 1872, William H. Jackson owned the high-stoop brownstone at 31 East 17th Street, home to the headquarters of W. H. Jackson & Co.

Seen here in 1880, 31 East 17th Street (to the left of the tall Century Company Building) retained much of its domestic appearance.  Only the parlor floor had been altered.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

In 1890, architect William Harvey Birkmire, the staff architect for W. H. Jackson & Co., filed plans to replace the vintage mansion and the property behind it on 18th Street with an 11-story, $100,000 office building.  Birkmire was a pioneer in "curtain wall" construction and in his 1893 Skeleton Construction In Buildings described the W. H. Jackson Building in detail.

Real Estate Record & Builder's Guide, October 25, 1890 (copyright expired)

Completed in June 1892, the W. H. Jackson Building was what would be called a "sliver building" today.  Birkmire's design was a blending of Romanesque Revival and German Renaissance styles.  Birkmire congratulated his design saying it had, "a commanding character in spite of its narrowness."  The lower three floors, dominated by a three-story arch, were  clad in cast iron molded to imitate stone.  Inside, said Birkmire, "The stairs are finished with cast-iron ornamental strings and wrought-iron railings with marble treads, the passenger elevators with wrought-iron scroll grilles and cast-iron transoms."

The abundance of ornamental ironwork was not surprising.  Founded in 1827, by Nathan H. Jackson, W. H. Jackson & Co. (known over the years as several names, including Wm. H. Jackson & Co. and Jackson Architectural Iron Works) designed and manufactured iron fireplace grates, architectural railings and other items.  The firm's success eventually brought commissions to design and produce the doors of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel and the Bowery Savings Bank.

An 1891 complementary Wm. H. Jackson & Co. calendar pictured a decorative fireplace fender.  (copyright expired)

Even as the upper floors were still under construction, the ground floor space was advertised for rent.  On December 2, 1891, an ad touted the "handsome large store, 28 x 184, just finished."  For potential occupants of the upper floors, the ad described "swift-running passenger and freight elevators.  Steam heat and power.  Complete system of electricity."

The store was taken by a long-term Union Square fixture, Brentano's bookstore.  The firm had occupied a converted mansion on the west side of the park for years.  

The Evening Post, December 19, 1892 (copyright expired)

Other tenants included at least two architectural firms.  Cady, Berg & See occupied offices by 1895.  The firm had designed important structures like the Museum of Natural History and the Metropolitan Opera House.   Esteemed architect George B. Post worked from the W. H. Jackson Building by 1897.

Several tenants were involved in the publishing industry.  Cassell Publishing Company issued Cassell's Family Magazine here by 1895.  At the turn of the century, the Ridgway Company published Everybody's Magazine here, and on March 17, 1906, The New York Times reported,

The group of publishers around Union Square--The Century Company, Baker, Taylor & Co., Brentano's, Doubleday, Page & Co., and Everybody's Magazine--will shortly be joined by Moffatt, Yard & Co., whose new offices will be at 31 East Seventeenth Street, the Jackson Building, where they will have more room for the growing business.

That year Moffatt, Yard & Co. published Behind the Scenes With Animals, the author of which was another W. H. Jackson Building tenant.  Ellen Velvin's office would remain in the building at least through 1914.  Born in 1862 in Plymouth, England, she was a prolific author, often writing about wildlife.

The W. H. Jackson Building is seen in this 1910 postcard.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

Another publishing house, Robert M. McBride & Co., would occupy space by 1913. 

In the meantime, William Henry Jackson died in November 1908 at the age of 79.  The firm ceased operation the following year.

William Henry Jackson, from Biographical Directory of the State of New York, 1900 (copyright expired)

Another tenant in the first years of the 20th century was The Regina Co., which produced and sold "pneumatic cleaners," known today as vacuum cleaners.  An advertisement in 1911 promised that Regina cleaners "have solved the 'Spring Housecleaning' problem in thousands of homes."

In 1913, Kyoto Manufacturing Co., a Japanese-based importer, moved in.  Also occupying space in the building at the time were the Travel Club of America and Tilton & Keeler, dealers of "color cards."

The Sun, October 1, 1919 (copyright expired)

Three new tenants moved into the W. H. Jackson Building in 1917.  Owens-Kreiser Co., a toy manufacturer, leased the sixth floor; Winsor & Newton, Inc., "dealers of artists' colors," moved in; and the tenth floor was leased to the Camp Fire Girls.

Founded in 1910 by husband and wife team, Dr. Luther Halsey Gulick and Charlotte Vetter Gulick, the Camp Fire Girls was the first non-sectarian organization for girls in the country.  In addition to camaraderie and fun, the girls learned domestic skills.  On December 21, 1924, The New York Times remarked, "The next generation is assured of [being] able to cook a well-balanced meal, wash dishes and do a turn at the washboard."  The article explained that to earn their homecraft honors during the past year, "They have cooked and served at least two Sunday dinners while their mothers have rested; they have cared for a baby at least an average of one hour a day for a month and they have made four kinds of biscuits."

By 1921, the Camp Fire Girls had expanded into the 11th floor, as well.  On December 20 that year, The Evening World reported, "The Camp Fire Girls who are mending broken toys to give to poor children, want more toys to mend and give."  The girls' toy drive had already resulted in the Italian-Chilean baritone Renato Zanelli of the Metropolitan Opera Company donating 25 new dolls.

image from the collection of the Library of Congress.

In 1893, William Harvey Birkire had boasted that his W. H. Jackson Building, "is entirely fireproof."  But on March 11, 1928, The New York Times reported, "Three women and more than twenty men were rescued yesterday afternoon by elevator operators in a fire in the eleven-story Jackson loft building, at Union Square North and East Seventeenth Street."  The fire had started in the fifth floor in the toy and doll factory of Nadel & Shimmel.  Owens-Kreiseler Company still occupied the sixth floor and the flammable celluloid used by both firms in making dolls fueled the blaze.  The ensuing three-alarm inferno gutted the fifth through eleventh floors, including the Camp Fire Girls headquarters on the top two.

At one point, said the article, "two flights of steel stairs, from the ninth to the eleventh floor, collapsed.  At first it was feared that a squad of firemen had been trapped, but all were found to be safe."

Almost two years to the day, on March 9, 1930, The New York Times reported on a second fire in the Jackson Building.  In a tragic case of déjà vu, the fire once again started in the Nadel & Shimmel factory.  "Firemen who responded to the first alarm turned in additional alarms when they found celluloid dolls and other celluloid toys," said The New York Times.

This time, the owners did not repair the upper floors.  The Work Progress Administration's New York City Guide explained in 1939, "The decreased demand for industrial floor area and the increased number of vacancies, in the years following the financial crisis of 1929, led to the popularity of a new type of structure--the taxpayer...Such an example is at 31 East Seventeenth Street, a two-story structure of cream brick and panels."

The stump of the W. H. Jackson Building had been remodeled as a low-rise Art Moderne structure, including glass block and vast windows, made possible by William H. Birkmire's skeleton construction.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

In 2005, the little building was given a gut renovation and a new glass and steel facade.   No hint is left to suggest for the passerby that this is the remnant of one of the earliest skyscrapers in Manhattan.

image via LoopNet.com

The Horace Butler House - 205 East Broadway

 

In the early 20th century, the cornice was removed.

Horace Butler moved into the 25-foot-wide mansion at 205 East Broadway around 1845.  The elegant neighborhood, which was rural as recently as half a century earlier, was filled with the Federal and Greek Revival style homes of affluent families.  Butler was a wealthy builder.  His four-story residence reflected his financial station.  Intricate iron railings descended the stoop to wrap the newels, which perched imperiously upon fluted stone drums.  On either side of the entrance, free-standing fluted Ionic columns upheld a three-layered entablature and cornice.

The unusual railings crest like breaking waves at sides of the columns.

The families of Charles Hall and Henry B. Brooks briefly shared 205 East Broadway at the end of the decade.  The men were both highly involved in the Mount Vernon 72 Lodge of the Odd Fellows.  In 1849, Brooks was its secretary and Hall was its treasurer.

By 1851, Richard C. Valentine and his wife, Elizabeth, moved into 205 East Broadway.  Born in 1810, Valentine was in the stereotype business (a type of printing process) on Gold Street.  His extensive operation was reflected in his lucrative 1842 contract to print the The Holy Bibles for the American Bible Society.  (The Bibles, which were distributed for free, numbered in tens of thousands annually.)  An announcement in The New York Times described Valentine's firm, "one of the most complete stereotype foundries in the country."

Richard C. Valentine was also an Odd Fellows member--although unlike his predecessors in the house, his lodge was Oriental Lodge No. 68.  His fraternity brothers filed into the house on March 27, 1858 for Richard's funeral.  The 48-year-old had died three days earlier.

As was common for widows, Elizabeth Valentine augmented her income by taking in select boarders.  An advertisement in The New York Times on September 2, 1858, read:

A Family Occupying the First-Class house, No. 205 East Broadway, offer superior accommodations to a few boarders.  The house contains gas, bath, &c., and is in perfect order.

The mention of "gas" and "bath" illustrates that the house was outfitted with cutting-edge amenities.  Illuminating gas for domestic use was still in its early stages and indoor plumbing was introduced in New York in 1842.

Among Elizabeth's initial boarders was John W. Gardner, a merchant.  He partially filled his off time by volunteering in the Eagle Hose Company, No. 1, the firehouse of which was on Madison Street near Pike Street.

Newlyweds William J. Willis and his wife, the former Selina Harper Dimock took rooms in 1860, the year they were married.  The groom was 24 years old and his bride was 22.  Willis was in the produce business at 37 Pearl Street.

Sadly, on February 15, 1862, Selina died of consumption at the age of 24.  The New York Times reported that her funeral would be "from the house of Mrs. E. Valentine, No. 205 East Broadway" on  February 17.  

William J. Willis remained in their rooms through 1863.  Elizabeth Valentine's other boarders that year were George B. Pease, a clerk; and Rev. C. C. Barclay, the rector of All Saints Church at 286 Henry Street.

The following year, Eliza Cook, the widow of William Cook, established a boarding house here.  She lost three young residents unexpectedly that year.  

On March 23, 1863, Congress had passed the Enrollment Act--a draft lottery to swell the ranks of the Union Army.  On March 18, 1865, The New York Times reported that 1,100 names had been drawn the previous day.  Among those was T. H. Parker, who boarded with Eliza Cook.  Two weeks later, another boarder was drafted.  On April 2, the newspaper listed B. Meagher among the 310 names pulled the previous day.

Irish-born brothers Michael and James Smith shared rooms at the time.  On October 1, 1865, James died here at the age of 29.  Eliza Cook opened her parlor for the young man's funeral on October 3.

Around 1867, John Scott and his family moved into 205 East Broadway.  A dealer of saws at 108 Hester Street, he was born in Scotland in 1817.  The family also took in boarders.  

Among them were an Irish, middle-aged couple, Thomas and Annie Keary.  Annie died here at the age of 64 on September 24, 1869, but unlike previous occupants, her funeral was not held in the house, but at St. Theresa's Church, on Henry and Rutgers Streets.

John Scott died here at the age of 65 on June 10, 1872.  His funeral was held in the parlor on June 12.  His widow quickly left East Broadway.  An advertisement in the New York Herald offered:

Elegant suit of furniture, 10 pieces, in brocatel, upholstered by Stewart, cost $600, in use four months; will be sold for $375 if bought in one week; owner leaves.

(The furnishings reflected the family's affluence, although the neighborhood had begun to change.  The original cost of the parlor set would translate to $15,400 in 2025.)

The house became home to John H. and Ellen M. Cheevers and their child.  Four years after moving in, on March 14, 1876, the 46-year-old Cheevers died.  As Elizabeth Valentine had done, Ellen took in boarders.  That year her boarders were Sigmund Hirschler, an underwear dealer; Joseph Landsberg, a tailor; and Louis May, a clerk.  (The names of Hirschler and Landsberg reflected the influx of German immigrants in the neighborhood.  By now, the Lower East Side was considered the German cultural center of America.)

On May 8, 1876, Ellen published a want-ad for a maid in The Sun, glossing over the fact that she had boarders.

Girl wanted--A smart, tidy girl, about 16 years old, to take care of a child and do general housework; the family consists of mother and child; references required.  Call on Mrs. Cheevers, 205 East Broadway.

Howard and Margaret B. Crosby purchased 205 East Broadway on June 19, 1882.  The couple were real estate operators and leased the house.  Living here in 1885 was Nathan Hutkoff, a glass dealer and a trustee of the Eldridge Street Synagogue, which was erected that year.  Among Nathan's investment properties was the nearby 199 East Broadway.  

The following year, on May 18, 1886, Louis and Rachel Hirschfield signed a lease for three years at $1,080 (equivalent of $11,800 per year today).

A tradition of physicians in the house began in 1888 with Dr. M. Capse.  By the early 1890s, Dr. Nicholaus Sachs ran his medical office here, and converted the basement to his pharmacy.  Sachs had received his medical degree in the University of Jena in 1881.  He advertised his office hours as "8 to 10, 5 to 7, Sunday 8 to 11."

An advertisement appeared in The Evening World on October 13, 1874 that read:

Drug Clerk, registered, speaking English & German; best references.  Dr. Sachs, 205 E. Broadway.

Early in the morning of January 10, 1902, a policeman captured one of two burglars as they fled from Sachs's pharmacy.  The New York Times reported, "he gave his name as Edward Potts, but the police say he is John Griffin."  His confederate, Dennis Driscoll, was apprehended January 25.  The newspaper said the pair had stolen "$53 in United States postage stamps."  (The pricey postage would translate to about $1,940 today.)

The last function within the Sachs household at 205 East Broadway was held in 1902.  On October 26, the New York Herald reported, "Dr. and Mrs. Nicholaus Sachs...announce the engagement of their daughter Eugenie to Dr. Moritz Wulfson Dreyer, of Brooklyn.  At home Sunday evening, November 2, 205 East Broadway.  No cards."

The next year, Dr. Sachs moved to 216 Henry Street and his former office was occupied by Dr. Zelik Sharfin.  He was quickly replaced by Dr. I. S. Hirsch.

One of the most terrifying medical threats at the turn of the last century was tuberculosis.  On August 15, 1904, the New York Globe and Commercial Advertiser reported on Hirsch's warnings in an article the newspaper titled, "Vendors of Germs."  The young physician had studied pushcart vendors and concluded that "men suffering from tuberculosis are vendors of impure soda water and ices to multitudes of children on the east side."  

 

Hirsch explained how the disease was readily communicated to the vendors' customers.  "Just think of a man who was constantly hawking and spitting, making these drinks and handing them out to children whose constitutions are already weakened by their unsanitary lives at home!"

The doctor lobbied for regulating vendors, similar to the sanitation laws in place with taverns and restaurants.  "It was by high license that the brothels, with all their filth, were rooted out of this neighborhood.  A better class of people run the saloons now, and the places are much neater.  Such a plan as this ought to work in the case of push carts and soda fountains."

Howard Crosby sold 205 East Broadway in January 1913 to Dr. Joseph C. Scal.  While the physician lived and worked in the upper floor, the basement level was converted to a synagogue by 1917, Adath Israel.  

On May 30, 1918, the New-York Tribune titled an article, "300 N. Y. Jews Sail as Legionairies to Fight in Palestine."  The article explained that the British government had enlisted volunteers to "join the British Army in a campaign to restore the Holy Land."  The article reported, "Yesterday noon, after being feted lavishly at their headquarters, 205 East Broadway, they marched through the East Side on their way to the British recruiting mission on Forty-second Street.  Their only music was the cheers of the thousands massed along the streets, showering them with comfort kits, flowers, tobacco and candy."  Isaac Marcus, described by the New-York Tribune as "an aged Hebrew patriarch," sent off his son, David, to the fray and "adjured him not to return until Palestine was restored to the Jews."

In the summer of 1924, Rabbi P. Goldberg of Adath Israel traveled to the Midwest.  At 6:30 on the night of June 1, he left St. Louis on a Wabash passenger train headed to Detroit, Michigan.  In a horrible accident, a freight train crashed into the passenger train.  The Kingston Daily Freeman reported, "The passenger coaches were telescoped by the crash into the freight and many passengers scalded."  Among the eight fatalities was Rabbi Goldberg.

A tailor shop occupied the basement level in 1941.  image from the NYC Records & Information Services.

By the middle of the Depression years, 205 East Broadway was home to the Maschel El Doll Aid to the Poor Society.  In 1938, with the Nazi Party in power in Germany, the charity organization initiated a fund raising "for Jews in Germany," according to The New York Sun.  Abraham Slutzkin, however, recognized an opportunity for himself.

On December 3, Reuben Lazarus arrived at the society office, telling secretary Emma Seiden that he wanted to donate five dollars, "because of his sympathy for the Jews in Germany."  Unfortunately, he only had a $17 check, made out to him from H. Papidus.  Emma accepted the endorsed check and promised she would have the $12 cash change by Tuesday.  

Reuben Lazarus was, in fact, Abraham Slutzkin.  When he returned on Tuesday evening, he never suspected that Emma had had enough time to discover his check was worthless.  Slutzkin followed Emma Seiden into the office to get his money.  The New York Sun reported that the shrewd secretary "locked Slutzkin in her office and telephoned for police."  The detectives who arrested him said "they had other similar complains against him."

At some point around this time, the cornice was removed from the building.  By the last half of the century, there were five apartments in the former house.  On May 24, 1969, the resident of the top floor held a "Spring Bazaar and Potluck Dinner" for the benefit of the Daily World and E. S. Forum, according to the announcement in the Daily World.

While no historic details survive within the former house, the exterior needs little imagination to envision as it did when wealthy occupants climbed the stoop 175 years ago.

photographs by the author

Shreve, Lamb & Harmon's 1931 500 Fifth Avenue

 

photograph by Gryffindor

The year 1928 was prodigious for the new partnership of Shreve, Lamb & Harmon.  Six months after the Empire State Inc. commissioned the firm to design what would be the Empire State Building on the site of the Waldorf-Astoria, Walter J. Salmon hired the architects to design a 58-floor skyscraper at the northwest corner of 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue.

Interestingly, the 42nd Street corner was considered more valuable than the Empire State Building site.  The Real Estate Record & Guide described it as "the most valuable building site on Manhattan Island north of Wall Street," and commented, "For years residents of the city and out-of-town visitors alike have speculated as to the future of this corner, wondering that so prominent a location--at 'the crossroads of the world'--should have been neglected in the modern development of Fifth Avenue."

Walter J. Salmon (he changed his surname from Salomon sometime after 1910) had acquired the 42nd Street corner in 1915, but delayed development for more than a decade.  His plot, explained The New York Times on September 14, 1930, "is located in two zones, and a special design for that unusual situation had to be worked out by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, the architects."  The two building zones, which allowed taller structures on 42nd Street than on Fifth Avenue, would result in the architects' asymmetrical design, unlike its sister building.  

Both skyscrapers broke ground in January 1930.  The New York Times followed the blinding speed of the progress of 500 Fifth Avenue.  On July 29, 1930, it reported "With the placing yesterday of the double deck tank house frame atop the fifty-eight story office building...steel work on the skyscraper was completed ahead of schedule."  The newspaper reported on September 7, "The exterior brick work...was completed last week," noting, "1,940,000 face brick and 1,374,000 common brick have been used."

photo by Wurts Bros., from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

Shreve, Lamb & Harmon's Art Deco design was clad in limestone, buff brick and terra cotta.  The setbacks on the Fifth Avenue side were located at the 18th, 22nd and 25th floors, while those of the taller 42nd Street portion were at the 23rd, 28th and 34th floors.  Between them, the soaring central shaft rose dramatically.  

Stores lined the sidewalk, their windows framed in bronze.  The architects decorated the lower floors with Art Deco motifs, most efficaciously at the entrance which was flanked by pylons that terminated in stylized gilded fountain motifs.  Above the entrance was a bas relief by Edward Amateis.  It depicts a seated goddess embracing a model of the building in one arm, and a staff in the other.

photograph by Epicgenius

Although the building was not completed until March 1931, it was far enough along that potential tenants could inspect spaces several months earlier.  Among those was real estate operator Reginald W. Murray, head of the R. W. Murray Company and the Bagge-Murray Company.  According to a company spokesperson, "Mr. Murray was interested in floor space in the sixty-story building...and had had blueprints made of the space and layout of executive offices for a client."

On November 20, 1930, he left his office around noon with the blueprints, saying he would be back shortly for a lunch appointment.  Just after 1:00, Murray's body crashed onto the iron grill covering the skylight of the Columbia University Club.  "The belief was expressed that while inspecting the window lighting on the twenty-fourth floor he leaned out too far, lost his balance or became dizzy, and fell," reported The New York Times.  

The soaring structure embodied the Art Deco age in this postcard view.

"The Great Crash" that triggered the Great Depression happened three months before construction began.  As the opening neared, Walter J. Salmon addressed the economic reality.  In an article in The New York Times on December 14, 1930, he said, "We feel that it will take some time to absorb the approximately 500,000 square feet of office space in the building."  Nevertheless, at the time of the article 500 Fifth Avenue was 80 percent rented.

The tenants were varied.  In May 1931, the newly-organized Hotel Expert Service Corporation took space on the 20th floor.  In August, the advertising agency of N. W. Ayer & Son, Inc. moved into the 25th through 27th floors.  Included in the space was a radio station on the 25th floor "with complete equipment for transmitting programs to several conference rooms, making it possible for the advertiser to hear his program just as it will sound when publicly broadcast," and a theater on the same floor, "where advertisers can view the moving pictures made for them by the company," reported The New York Times on August 3, 1931.

photograph by Epicogenius

Among the initial retail tenants was the tobacco store of Nat Sherman, which moved into the corner store.  In the meantime, railroad firms gravitated to the building.  On February 5, 1932, The New York Sun began an article saying, "The eleventh railroad has taken lease space in the sixty-story 500 Fifth Avenue Building."  The newest was the Mobile & Ohio Railroad Company.  Others included the Chicago & Northwestern; the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific; and Burlington & Quincy.

An unusual tenant was the Western Universities Club, which outfitted the four top floors for its clubhouse.  On October 25, 1932, the Iowa City Press-Citizen explained, "The club provides facilities for newcomers to meet old western friends who are now in the east and to promote understanding between the east and west."

The Austrian Consulate and office of consul-general Dr. Friedrich Fischerauer occupied space on the 31st floor in 1934.  At the time, the country's chancellor was dictator Engelbert Dollfuss who instituted Austro-Fascism that year.  At around 3:00 on February 14, about 200 "Communist, Socialists and other sympathizers," according to the Daily Columbia Spectator, began protests "against the Dollfuss regime" outside 500 Fifth Avenue.  "By 5:30 P. M., it numbered at least 4,000."  

Among the angry throng was Columbia assistant professor in physics (and son of author Upton Sinclair), David Sinclair.  "Trouble started shortly after 5 P. M.," said the Daily Columbia Spectator, which said the protest developed to a "near riot."  The article said, "The demonstrators, chased by officers up on the Public Library plaza, were then closed in upon by the mounted and foot police."  Among the injured was David Sinclair, who was "severely beaten about the head."

Before leaving for work on February 18, 1935, tenants must have panicked when they saw a headline in The New York Sun that read, "Elevator Men Begin Walkout."  In reporting the strike, the article noted, "Another twenty operators and two starters struck at 500 Fifth avenue in the sixty-story building, where 3,500 persons work and some 20,000 persons go in and out every day."

The building manager, Emil Gallinger, however, told a reporter the following day that amidst the Depression environment, "he had no lack of applications from men seeking to replace the striking elevator operators."  He told The Sun, "New men were running some of the elevators in the sixty-story building at 500 Fifth avenue...and that soon all would be in operation."

In the second half of the 20th century, 500 Fifth Avenue was home to several attorneys and travel agencies.  At least one railroad was still here, Burlington Northern.  

The City Stores Company, a holding company for department stores founded in 1923, had offices on the 32nd floor by the early 1970s.  Gloria Nimmons was its switchboard operator in 1974.  The 35-year-old was estranged from her husband, Bernard Nimmons.  Just before 2:00 on May 25 that year, Bernard walked into the City Stores Company offices.  According to police, he "emptied his gun at the woman."  Nimmons fled, leaving his wife dead on the floor.

At the time, the architectural firm Prentice & Chan, Olhausen occupied the top floor.  In November 1976 partner Rolf Olhausen opined to The New York Times architecture critic and journalist Paul Goldberger that its space "may have been some sort of restaurant very long ago."  The space, of course, had been the clubrooms of the Western Universities Club, details of which apparently had survived.

The Nat Sherman store's large bronze street clock, flanked with two cigar store Indians, was a fixture on the 42nd and Fifth Avenue corner.  Then, after more than three-quarters of a century in the space, Nat Sherman closed its doors on June 15, 2007.  CEO Joel Sherman explained to The New York Times journalist Anthony Ramirez that the lease had expired and, while the firm did not want to leave, the management of 500 Fifth Avenue "made staying in that building rather uncomfortable for us, they made us feel unwanted."  In his August 30 article, Ramirez recalled:

Customers like Joe Montana and Natalie Cole would drop by for cigars, and sometimes stay for a smoke in the upstairs lounge.  The more committed aficionados had small name-plated lockers for their smokes.  They included Harry Connick Jr., the singer; Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former mayor; and Joe Torre, the Yankees baseball manager.

Nat Sherman moved diagonally across the intersection to 12 East 42nd Street.

photograph by Pablo Costa Tirado

Shreve, Lamb & Harmon's imposing Art Deco skyscraper has always played second fiddle to its famous sister, the Empire State Building.  Deserving more attention than it is given, 500 Fifth Avenue is among the most architecturally significant Art Deco skyscrapers in the city.

The 1836 Arthur Rogers Pharmacy Building - 193 Spring Street

 

Little Brannon Street, named for the owner's garden, continued through the country estate of Aaron Burr, Richmond Hill.  In 1817, streets began appearing in the district, followed by houses.  The name of Brannon Street was changed to Spring Street, after the spring that provided water to the new residents.

In 1833, Thomas and Maria Ludlow sold a portion of their large property to three investors--merchant Ellison C. Scott, Israel Clark and John G. Hadden.  The trio erected three similar Federal style houses on the plots.  Clark, a mason, and Hadden, who was a carpenter-builder, were no doubt hands-on in the construction.  Ellison C. Scott was the owner of the new structure at 193 Spring Street.

Originally two-and-a-half stories tall, the 25-foot-wide building and store would have had one or two dormers punching through the peaked roof.  The occupants of the upper floors in 1836 was the family of James B. Bensel, a tailor whose shop was at 51 Fulton Street.

By 1840, the store was occupied by the confectionary store of Arthur Corry (sometimes spelled Cory).  It was replaced by William Core's fancystore by 1845.  (Fancystores offered a variety of items, from sewing needs to gloves and hosiery.)  At the time, Leah Nagle, the widow of William Nagle, lived upstairs.

When 193 and 195 Spring Street were advertised for sale on December 19, 1845, they were described as, "2 story and attic brick front houses."  The ad reflected the well-established neighborhood.  "The situation, with regard to business is unsurpassed, it being regarded as the best stand on the street."  The owner of 193 Spring Street raised the attic level to a full floor.  When he sold the property in February 1850, it was now described as, "the lot of ground known as No. 193 Spring street, with the 3 story brick store and dwelling house thereon."

That year, Thomas Towle moved his drygoods store, Thomas Towle & Sons, from 313 Hudson Street into the shop and moved his family into the upper floors.  Although the Towles continued to live here, in 1853 Peter B. and Charles L. Utley ran the drygoods store, named Utley & Brother.  Sharing the upper floors with the Towles were the Mott family.

Tragedy occurred here on October 4, 1854.  The Motts had a newly born girl, Ella.  On October 14, the Mourning Courier & New-York Enquirer reported, "An inquest was held upon the body of Ella Mott, an infant, who died from the effects of scalds received ten days since, when a pot of boiling coffee was upset upon its chest at the residence of its parents, No. 193 Spring street."

The Utley & Brother store remained in 1856.  That year Arthur Rogers leased the building, opening his pharmacy in the shop and moving his family into the upstairs.  Born in 1817, Rogers had been a druggist for about 15 years.  

When the building was sold at auction on March 18, 1856, the announcement mentioned it was "occupied by a drug store."  The pharmacy would continue to be a neighborhood mainstay for decades to come.

Pharmacists routinely mixed and sold their own patent medicine.  In April 1859, an advertisement in the New-York Tribune touted, "Rogers's Citrate of Magnesia--Try it! Try it!  Large Bottles in Powder only 25 cents.  One Bottle is equal to three of the Liquid.  A very agreeable Purgative."

By 1868, Edward H. Rogers had joined his father's business, now named Arthur Rogers & Son's.  In June that year, Kate Sloan, who was a servant in the house of James Hamilton at 99 Thompson Street, purchased a package of Epsom salts mixed with senna.  (The compound was used as a laxative.)  When she returned, Hamilton did not take it, and the package was placed on a shelf.

Around September 20, James Hamilton took the preparation.  A week later, on September 27, the 42-year-old died.  Both Arthur and Edward Rogers were arrested the next day, "to await an examination into the circumstances attending the dead," reported the New York Herald.  The druggists were held until October 5 when they were exonerated "for all blame," as reported by The Evening Post.  James Hamilton had accidentally ingested oxalic acid after, apparently, the packages had gotten confused.

The Rogers family routinely took in boarders, and in 1869 William Ferguson lived here.  That year in April he joined scores of irate citizens who signed a demand that the New York Senate and Assembly investigate the recent Presidential election.  Saying that prominent officials had "with the shrewdly-concealed connivance of others," they "robbed the people of that great State of their rightful choice of electors of President and Vice-President."

Arthur Rogers was at the Market Street train station in Newark, New Jersey when he was "robbed of fifty dollars and some valuable papers...by a Philadelphia pickpocket named Christian," said The Evening Post on September 22, 1870.  The article reported, "The thief was at once arrested by the police, but he threw the pocketbook and its contents to an accomplice, who succeeded in effecting his escape."  The cash Rogers lost would translate to about $1,200 in 2025.

Around 1876, the father-and-son business was successful enough that they opened a second drugstore at 281 Bleecker Street.  The following year, an "annoying tumor," as described by The New York Times, developed on Arthur Rogers's neck.  The pharmacist worried about his condition, eventually becoming despondent.

Around 5:00 on the morning of November 8, 1877, Rogers left the house, telling his wife "he was going to visit a relative in Brooklyn," said The New York Times.  He would not return.  The newspaper reported, "Between 8 and 9 o'clock yesterday evening the Harbor Police found the body of an unknown man floating in the East River at the foot of Montague-street, Brooklyn."  Papers on the body suggested it was Rogers.  Edward went to the morgue and identified his father.  The body of the 60-year-old was brought here, where his funeral was held.

Edward continued to use the former name following his father's death.  Decades after Arthur concocted the patent medicine, it was still was the firm's major draw.  Friends' Intelligencer, September 21, 1878 (copyright expired)

The Rogers pharmacy remained at least through 1891.  By then, the neighborhood was what newspapers called "the Italian Colony."  The inspection that resulted in a violation at 193 Spring Street for "inadequate fire-escapes" described it as a "tenement," meaning that it was now a multi-family building.  In April 1906, Sophia Longinotti sold the property to Antonio and Silvestro Sozio, presumably brothers.

The Sozios hired architect Frederick Musty in August 1908 to make minor renovations.  The costs were only about $3,500 in 2025 terms.  It was possible at this time that a veneer of stucco scored to appear as stone was applied.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

A more substantial renovation completed in 1944 that resulted in two apartments per floor above the storefront.

The Soho neighborhood retained its Italian personality into the second half of the century.  In the 1980s, the former Rogers drugstore was home to the restaurant, Rocco & His Brothers.  But as the 20th century drew to a close, the district was transformed by trendy cafes, art galleries, and boutiques.  The change was evident when Baluchi's, a Northern Indian restaurant, opened in January 1993.  Today a delicatessen occupies the space.

This resilient survivor stands as a surprising relic of the first wave of the Soho development.

photographs by the author

The Remodeled Herbert Lawrence House - 267 Henry Street

 

In the early 1830s, prim Federal-style houses rose along the new streets laid out on the former Rutgers Farm.  One of these, at 267 Henry Street (named for Henry Rutgers), was completed in 1834.  Like most of its neighbors, it was two-and-a-half stories tall with red brick cladding and two attic dormers.  In November 1834, an advertisement in the New York Morning Courier offered for sale, "the two story House and Lot No. 267 Henry st...house 24 by 42 ft., finished in modern style, with under cellars, finished attic, &c."

Nathan Cobb, a shipmaster, occupied the house in 1836.  Cobb owned the coastal steamer Savannah and had become a member of the Marine Society of the City of New York on May 12, 1828.  Following his retirement, Cobb relocated to Tarrytown, where he erected a stately mansion that survives.

Nathan Cobb assuredly was well-acquainted with Herbert Lawrence, one of the preeminent ship builders of the East Coast.  Their relationship likely resulted in Lawrence's purchase of 267 Henry Street in 1846.  

Herbert Lawrence was born in Pallisades, in Rockland County, in 1778.  He arrived in New York City in 1809 and became "a practical ship-builder, entering a yard near the Battery," according to The New York Times decades later.  He co-founded Lawrence & Sneden in 1816 as the senior partner.  The following year the firm was given an important commission for the steamboat Bolona by Cornelius Vanderbilt I.  The New York Times reported, 

She was a model of beauty and marveled at of account of her size.  She was built to compete with a line of boats owned by a company which was monopolizing traffic on the Hudson River.  The wonderful craft was 80 feet long, 20 feet beam, and 6 feet hold, and was propelled by paddle wheels.

In appreciation of the lucrative commission, Lawrence presented Vanderbilt with a scale model of the Bolona, which was prominently displayed in the Vanderbilt parlor at 10 Washington Place.

Herbert and his wife, the former Sarah Freelove Mann, had two sons, William and Herbert, Jr.  (Somewhat morbidly, the boys' namesakes were their parent's first sons--also William and Herbert--who died in infancy.)

By 1852, Herbert, Jr., still in his 20s, was a co-proprietor of his father's firm.  That year William Foulks established a partnership with Herbert Lawrence, and the firm was renamed Lawrence & Foulks.  With the seaport bustling and crowded, in 1854 the firm moved its shipyard to Williamsburg, Brooklyn.  During this period, Lawrence & Foulks built oceangoing steamships outfitted with lavish accommodations for passengers.

Lawrence & Foulks built the luxurious Commonwealth in 1854.  from the collection of the Athenaeum.

The firm turned from luxury travel and shipping to warfare with the outbreak of the Civil War.  Several crafts in the process of construction were remodeled for gunboats.  The sidewheel steamer Thomas Freeborn was engaged in an attack on Mathias Point, Virginia on June 16, 1861 and his commander, James H. Ward, became the first U.S. Navy officer killed in the war.

Following the war, Lawrence & Foulks resumed the construction of a variety of vessels, like the Sylvan Dell, a ferry built for the Harlem & New York Navigation Company (it earned the nickname the "Queen of New York Harbor"), and the first schooner built after the Civil War, the Jennie Stout.

On October 20, 1877, Sarah Lawrence died a month before her 84th birthday.  Her funeral was held in the house on October 24, at 11 a.m.  By then, Herbert, Sr. had retired and Herbert, Jr. had stepped into the senior partnership role.  

On March 1, 1882, The New York Times reported, "Mr. Herbert Lawrence, a very old resident of this City and one who was closely identified with ship-building interests here in the early years of the century, died yesterday at his residence, No. 267 Henry-street."  The article commented, "he bought the house in which he died yesterday 36 years ago, when Henry-street was a fashionable locality."  His funeral on March 2 would be the last in the venerable house.

The "fashionable locality" mentioned in the article had greatly changed since the Lawrence family moved in.  The district was now mostly filled with Eastern European Jewish immigrants.  On June 16, 1888, the Record & Guide reported that the Lawrence house had been sold to "The Louis Down-Town Sabbath School."  The cost had been $14,250, and "with an additional expenditure of $5,000, was converted into a well-appointed schoolhouse," according to The New York Times.  The total expenditure would translate to about $636,000 today.

The girls' school was founded in 1880 by Mrs. A. H. Louis.  Seven years after it moved into 267 Henry Street, on June 16, 1895, The New York Times praised, "The Louis Down-Town Sabbath and Daily School is a magnificent example of what can be accomplished by noble-minded women among the young and old of their sex in the hearts of the slums."  The article said the sponsors, "by the hand with kindness and tact, has induced these little girls to go to the schoolhouse and receive not only the rudiments of an English education and that of the ancient faith of Moses and the children of Israel, but lessons in decorum, cleanliness, and useful knowledge to the housewife."

The 50 students were from 8 to 15 years old.  The curriculum focused on preparing the girls for life later.  The morning consisted of "plain sewing, fancy needlework, dressmaking, millinery, and cooking."  In the afternoons, they were instructed in "stenography, typewriter, bookkeeping, and in elementary English."  The article stressed, "The officers and teachers endeavor to place the girls with families and business houses and thereby counteract...as possible the evils of the sweatshop system."

The New York Times, June 10, 1905 (copyright expired)

On February 10, 1902, The Evening World reported, "Adolph Lewisohn to-day gave $75,000 to the Hebrew Technical School towards a fund for another school building," and that Nathaniel Meyers had added $5,000.  The article recalled, "The school is located at No. 267 Henry street for the education of poor east side girls."  The massive funding resulted in an announcement  on May 5, 1903 that a planned building at Second Avenue and 15th Street was planned.

The school relocated in 1906 and on May 11 Morris Loeb purchased the building for $28,000 (about $978,000 today).  The Federal style residence was given a remarkable re-do.  The attic was raised to a third floor, the entrance dropped below grade, and the facade given a Georgian inspired transformation, including handsome arched tympana over the floor windows and Colonial splayed lintels at the second floor.

The renovation of 267 (right) was remarkable.  Next door, at 265 Henry Street was the original Henry Settlement House property.  from the NYC Records & Information Services.

At the time, Lillian D. Wald had operated the Henry Street Settlement next door at 265 Henry Street since 1894.  Loeb donated 267 Henry Street to the Settlement as administrative offices.

Eventually, 263 Henry Street would be acquired by the organization as well.  When a proposal in 1964 threatened to raze and replace the properties, the officers chose instead to restore the historic structures.  The work of the Henry Street Settlement continues within the three vintage structures.  No. 267 Henry Street--which would be unrecognizable to the Lawrence family today--is as important for its social history as for its striking architecture.

photographs by the author