Dry Goods, Irish History, and Lap Dances - 279 Church Street

 

In 1866 Meyer Rosenthal and Betsy Levi completed construction of two identical commercial buildings at 273 and 279 Church Street.  They replaced small, wooden structures.  Above their cast-iron storefronts were three floors of red brick, trimmed in brownstone.  Handsome Italianate style cast metal cornices with foliate brackets capped the design.

Typical of the buildings rising in the neighborhood, 279 Church Street filled with dry goods merchants, including importer of Irish linen goods and white goods, William Whiteside, here by 1869.  In the last decade of the century, William Henry Wardell & Co., makers of handkerchiefs; shirt maker Solon & Kommell; and Foster Black & Company, underwear manufacturers; occupied the building.

The Brookside Knitting Company supplied some of the raw materials used by the Foster Black & Company.  The extent of the latter's business was evidenced in orders in the summer of 1887 that totaled $40,000 (about $1.46 million in 2024).  Foster Black & Company received an invoice, backed up with signed receipts that proved the goods had been received, and the bill was paid.

In fact, the materials had never been shipped.  The president of Brookside Knitting Company, George Haywood Carpenter, had forged the bills of lading, pocketed the $40,000, and disappeared.  Court documents later said, "The flitting took place last July and Carpenter's description was telegraphed far and wide with the information that a warrant was out for him."

The management of Foster Black & Company was as dogged in his pursuant was were the detectives.  Court papers said, "Ever since his sudden departure last summer, the Foster Black Company...has kept a sharp lookout for him.  Carpenter was a graduate of Princeton and word was sent to the graduates of his class now living throughout the country to notify the Foster Black Company at once should his whereabouts become known to any of them."

Months later, in January 1888, Carpenter was tracked down and arrested in Jacksonville, Florida.  Given Carpenter's wealth and social standing, rather than put him in a cell, "the  Sheriff gave him two guards and allowed him to remain in his own private rooms guarded by them," reported The World on February 2, 1888.  But the article continued, "When the guards went to arouse him this morning they found only a stuffed figure in the bed." 

The search was on again.  Carpenter was finally traced to the home of his father, the Rev. George Carpenter, in Chillicothe, Ohio.  On June 23, 1888, the New-York Tribune reported on his arrest, saying, "He consented to return to New-York without a requisition and he arrived in this city...yesterday."

Around 1905 the building was purchased by Patrick Murphy, owner of P. Murphy & Son.  The publishing firm was narrow in its field, and its books dealt almost exclusively with Irish history.  In 1907, for instance, it released the two-volume Irish-American History of the United States by the Very Rev. John Canon O'Hanlon.  In 1913 it published the Atlas of Ireland, and in 1915 released Irish Pedigrees; or The Origin and Stem of the Irish Nation, by John O'Hart.

In 1917 Patrick Murphy leased the entire building to the Standard Mills, exporters and jobbers of dry goods.  The firm would remain into the Depression years.  The first signs of decline to the vintage building came on September 15, 1941, when The New York Sun reported that the store and basement had been leased by George L. Garber "for the storage of office furniture."  The Garber Company occupied the entire building at 404 Broadway.  

In 1941 the storefront was intact.  A large "For Rent" sign is pasted on the window.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Real change, however, came in 1991 when the ground floor was converted to what the Department of Buildings described as a "theater, (no motion pictures)."  The owners of the Harmony Theatre bricked in the cast iron storefront, blocking prying eyes from seeing inside.

image by Michael Minn, via michaelminn.com

The Harmony Theatre had good reason to want privacy.  Undercover vice inspectors who visited the club in the summer of 1998 found nude lap dancers entertaining the customers.  The New York Times reported, "Those city employees reported seeing mutual groping of naked women and male customers.  One inspector said simply, 'I observed one female who appeared to be having sexual intercourse with one of the male patrons."

It was enough for Justice Stephen G. Crane of State Supreme Court.  On August 4, The New York Times reported that he "allowed the city to shut down the Harmony Theater in lower Manhattan, which it did last night."  The next morning the club's attorney, Harold Price Fahringer, argued to the court that "he could show that his clients had adapted to the city's new standards."  The New York Times reported, "the dancers have taken to wearing tops and bottoms, Mr. Fahringer said."

Four years later a much more respectable theater opened here.  On September 5, 2004, The New York Times reported that George & Martha, "a political satire by Karen Finley," would open at Collective: Unconscious on September 17.  The theater was comprehensively described by Inside New York 2008:

Its maximum occupancy may be 74 people, but this "all-ages volunteer-run, non-profit, multi-use performance venue" is one of the best places in the city for developing musicians to show off their stuff and get scouted by indie labels.  The upstairs houses a small auditorium for musical acts and plays, while the downstairs is currently home to the Tank, a non-profit organization that hosts film, comedy, music, dance, public affairs, new media, and theater events.

Collective: Unconscious left in 2011 about the time that Slavik Gofman purchased 279 Church Street.  He presented his plans to open a trendy wine bar, Muline a Vino, in the ground floor space to Community Board I in May 2012.  According to The TribecaTrib, he announced, "What I'm saying is, this is an ugly building and I'm here to improve it."  Swaying the Board was crucial, since his acquiring a liquor license was in their hands.

The Board was swayed and Slavik's plans went forward, including the admirable restoration of the storefront.  The ground floor has been home to several tenants since then, while at the second floor, a blade sign reading "BURLESQUE" survives as a reminder of a darker, if more colorful period of the building's history.

photographs by the author

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The Fred'k Vietor & Achelis Building - 247-249 Church Street

Although Jarvis Slade was primarily a dry goods merchant, he recognized the potential in real estate.  In 1865, as the Tribeca neighborhood transformed into the city's dry goods district, he began construction on a five-story loft-and-store building at 97 Franklin Street, and the following year broke ground for another at the opposite corner of the block, at 247-249 Church Street.  Slade almost assuredly used the same architect for both structures, since their resemblance is undeniable.  And he may very well have been Slade's 40-year-old son, Jarvis Morgan Slade, who would design several buildings in the dry goods district.

The sandstone-faced 247-249 Church Street was completed in 1867.  A blend of Italianate and Second Empire styles, its five floors were clearly defined by molded sill courses.  The upper story openings were encased in subtle architrave frames.

Among the first tenants was Almy & Co., dry goods selling agents, which occupied space by 1868.  Among its clients was the Worumbo Manufacturing Co. of Maine, which made wool fabrics like "dahlia beaver" and "blue beaver."  The firm was joined in 1875 by Fred'k Vietor & Achelis, importers and jobbers of dry goods; and in 1888 by wool merchants Patterson & Greenough. 

 

The building became home to the offices of the Woolen Goods Association by 1888.  It was the scene of an "important special meeting" on November 23 that year, with members coming from as far away as Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania.  A committee of 25 manufacturers and commission merchants was chosen to travel to Washington DC to lobby the Secretary of the Treasury to reclassify cloths known as "'worsteds' or 'diagonals' or otherwise" as "woolens" for customs purposes.

The late 1880s and early 1890s saw firms like the Brookside Knitting Mills and the commission house Faulkner, Page & Co. in the building with Fred'k Vietor & Achelis.  The latter was the victim of bold thieves on January 13, 1890.

The granite sidewalks of Tribeca were routinely stacked with boxes of incoming and outgoing goods.  On that day, a case containing 100 shawls valued at the equivalent of $5,000 in 2023 was snatched by three men.  A detective quickly tracked George Austin, George Wilson and Marcus Raymond to the house of Ellen Kane on Allen Street.  The New York Times reported on January 16, "The property was all there, and so were a number of burglars' tools."  All four were arrested, charged with grand larceny.

On April 10, 1896, world-renowned journalist John A. Cockerill died while on assignment in Egypt.  At the time, Walter Louis Lienau worked for Fred'k Vietor & Achelis and, it seems, was on very friendly terms with Cockerill's wife, Leonora.  Shockingly, two months later, on June 15, the Syracuse, New York newspaper The Evening Herald reported that the two had married.  The couple had gone to Police headquarters shortly before midnight four days earlier and asked to be married by a justice of the peace.  "Everything went well until the part of the service was reached which reads: 'And do you promise to love, honor and obey?" said the article.

Apparently an adherent to the growing women's movement, "Mrs. Cockerill made strenuous objections to this, and the ceremony was gone over again, the objectionable word 'obey' being left out."  Now bound as equal partners, the happy couple left in their carriage.  The newspaper noted, "not until Saturday did it come out that the bride was the widow of John A. Cockerill."

Fred'k Vietor & Achelis was founded in 1842 when Frederick Vietor partnered with his cousin, Thomas Achelis.  Thomas had arrived in New York in 1834, six years after Vietor.  Their success was such that in 1900 the firm leased the entire Church Street building for its cotton goods business, and another office was opened on Spring Street to handle its silk goods.  At the time, the firm was headed by its founders' sons, John Achelis and Thomas F. Vietor.

An executive with the firm in 1907 was Nicholas M. Smith, Jr., who had joined Fred'k Vietor & Achelis around 1882.  Manager A. R. Prior described him as "one of the most popular men in the dry goods business."  Smith was married in the spring of 1907 and moved with his "young wife," as worded by the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, to New Rochelle.  As he left work on the evening of November 22, Smith mentioned that he would be "down a little earlier than usual" the following morning, "to attend to a couple of very good customers before noon time."  Those meetings would never take place.

According to the two live-in maids, the Smiths had "an angry dispute."  Then, at around 12:30 the following morning the maids were awakened by a gunshot.  Terrified, they locked themselves in their room on the top floor.  About an hour later, a neighbor began pounding on the front door, screaming that the house was on fire.  

Fire fighters arrived and found Mrs. Smith dead in her bed, shot in the chest.  "When the firemen entered the house the second time, one of the terror-stricken maids came down the stairs," reported The Evening Post.   The other maid was trapped and had to be rescued by ladder.  Later, the responders also found the body of Nicholas Smith.  The Evening Post reported that Smith "is supposed to have shot and killed his wife...and, after setting fire to the house, killed himself."

Despite the evidence (Smith had left a careful inventory of the valuables in the house), at the Church Street offices Thomas Vietor quickly refuted the possibility of murder-suicide.  He also stressed to a reporter from The Sun that he knew of no enemies of Smith.  He therefore surmised "that robbery was the motive, and that the murderer set fire to the house in the hope of covering up his tracks."

With America's entry into World War I, Fred'k Vietor & Achelis landed a massive contract with the U.S. Army to supply "brown denim" for uniforms.  In 1918, the firm supplied 3,532,500 yards of fabric, billing the Government just over $1 million.

After nearly six decades in the building, Fred'k Vietor & Achelis left around 1931.  It received a renovation in 1932 by the architectural firm of Richard Berger & Sons.  The Corinthian columns of the storefront were replaced by flat stone piers at this time.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The remodeled building became home to cotton goods brokers Heineman & Sideman, headed by Percy Heineman.  Originally M. Heineman & Co., it had been founded by Heineman's father, Moses Heineman.  Two years after the firm moved into the building, Percy Heineman suffered a fatal heart attack while on vacation in Miami, Florida.  He was 47 years old.

Heineman & Sideman remained in the building at least through 1943.  In the mid-1940s, it was home to Tikern Corporation, makers of camera supplies.

As the Tribeca neighborhood underwent a renaissance in the third quarter of the century, 247-249 Church Street was renovated to apartments above the ground floor in 1989.  

photographs by the author

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The 1860 Marble Faced 65-69 Worth Street

 

On April 29, 1859, the New York Herald titled an article "New Buildings in New York," and listed the "over five millions of dollars worth of new buildings going up."  Included were the five-story "store at 65 and 67 Worth street, corner of Church," and another next door at 69 Worth Street, both being erected by "Mr. Wyman."  Samuel Wyman, who was a dry goods merchant in Philadelphia, was investing in the building boom as the neighborhood we now know as Tribeca transformed from residential to commercial.   The New York Herald described the buildings as having "white marble fronts," saying they would be "first class in every way."

Wyman's architect designed the two structures to appear seamlessly as one.  Stacked quoins divided the corner building into three vertical sections on Church Street.  The same configuration on Worth Street was achieved by disguising 69 Worth Street as the eastern-most section.  Above cast iron storefronts, which originally included Corinthian columns, each floor was defined by an intermediate cornice.  The openings sat within dignified architrave frames.

The buildings was within the rapidly developing dry goods district.  Among the earliest tenants of the corner building was Bostwick, Sabin & Clark, operated by Jonas Clark, George D. Sabin, and Oliver N. Bostwick.  On September 14, 1865, Vincent Colyer presented a report on "The Reception and Care of the Soldiers Returning From the War."  It included a listing of donations from individuals and firms.  Bostwick, Sabin & Clark's donation reflected the somber side of the war.  The firm had provided "mourning drapery."

Also in the building at the time was Terrell, Jennings & Co., dry goods importers.  More than a century before electronic and digital payment methods, business was done in cash or check.  On August 15, 1865, assistant bookkeeper Henry H. Van Amburgh "made up a package of $1,000 in bank notes, and $1,303.20 in checks," according to his testimony later, and was just about to hand it to a messenger to take to the Metropolitan Bank, when his boss, bookkeeper James M. Sweeney, Jr., intervened.  Amburgh said "Sweeney told him that he ought not to send so many bills," and took the package.

The New York Times reported, "a few days afterward, Sweeney disappeared from the city and...it was found that the $1,100 in bank notes had not been deposited in the bank."  A review of the books discovered that he had also absconded with another $2,000 in cash.  (The total would translate to about $57,500 in 2023.)  Relentless detectives tracked him down in Philadelphia where he was arrested, returned to New York, and charged with defrauding the firm.

The dogged determination of detectives had been even more vividly evidenced next door at 69 Worth Street four years earlier.  On the night of November 17, 1860, Fishers & Co., lace importers, "was visited by burglars," said the New York Times, "and robbed of laces valued in the aggregate of $4,000."  Although a careful investigation of the scene "afforded no clue by which the identity of the offenders could be established," Sergeant Dickson and Officers Farley and Eustace would not give up.

Store-by-store interviews about any suspicious persons loitering in the neighborhood prior to the burglary finally provided descriptions that matched "two well-known burglars," George Smith and John Campbell.  After a few days investigation, they were tracked to a boarding house on Sullivan Street where the landlady showed them "two apparently well-filled trunks" that they had brought with them.  The officers returned to the station house to get a search warrant to open the trunks, but when they returned the next day, the men had fled.

Weeks later, wrote The New York Times, "An untiring search resulted in tracing Campbell to Albany, whither he had taken the laces for the purpose of disposing of them."  Officer Farley additionally learned that a man known for receiving stolen goods had also traveled to Albany.  But Farley was as well-known to that man as he was to the officer, and both crooks fled.  The cat-and-mouse game continued with the officers tracking the trunks to Yonkers, then to a boarding house on Bleecker Street.  Finally, after two months of tenacious investigation, the officers seized the trunks in the Bleecker Street house in January 1861.  "Upon breaking them open, it was found that they contained about $2,600 worth of laces, all of which have been since identified by Messrs. Fishers &, Co. as belonging to them, the burglars having neglected to remove the trademarks," said The New York Times.  

Another tenant of 69 Worth Street, wholesale shoe dealers Bell & Wheelock, had a dishonest employee in 1864.  A member of the firm went to Captain Jourdan of the 6th Precinct in March that year, complaining that "that for several months past large quantities of their goods had disappeared, in some mysterious manner, from time to time," reported The New York Times.  He added that he suspected a porter, John Farlow.

Jourdan and an officer named Golden staked out the premises for several nights until early morning.  Farlow, they knew, had keys to both the building and the safe.  Finally, on the night of March 29, Farley left the store with a bulky package.  Golden followed him for a few blocks, then confronted him.  When the package was opened at the station house, it revealed 28 pairs of ladies' shoes.  Farlow explained that he had "express permission" to take the goods and that he had never stolen an article in his life.  Captain Jourdan sent for one of the members of Bell & Wheelock, who contradicted Farlow's story. 

Cornered, John Farlow admitted that he had stolen the goods, and, in fact, "about three times each week, since June last, he had stolen goods from his employers."  Most of them he sold to a boot and shoe dealer on the Bowery.  A search of Farlow's home revealed that he was not alone in the caper.  There, "ten pairs of fine ladies' gaiters" were found.  Farlow's wife, Hannah, admitted that for a "long time past," she had visited her husband at the store, and taken shoes back home.  Farlow would then go out at night to dispose of them.  The husband and wife team were held in the Tombs for trial.

In the late 1880s, the wholesale dry goods firm of J. T. Low & Co. occupied space in 65-67 Worth Street.  Its principal, Joseph T. Low, was described by The Sun as "well known and respected in the trade, and is said to be a millionaire."  On the evening of September 6, 1888, Low and his wife boarded a stage in front of the Union League Club.  Seated opposite them "was a handsome brunette dressed in becoming black," according to The Evening World.  As the Lows discussed whether they should dine at Delmonico's or at the Brunswick (either restaurant as high end as the other), the woman stood up and "planted the heel of her dainty boot savagely upon [Low's] foot."  Low cross his leg, to ensure that his foot was not encroaching on the woman's space, "when he was favored with a sharp kick on his shin from the woman in black, who then got up and deliberately spat in his face."

When Low made an angry remark, she began beating him with her silk umbrella.  Low had the coach driver stop, and left the stage, only to realize the woman was now "venting her wrath" on his wife, "belaboring her unmercifully with the umbrella."  A policeman interrupted the affray, at which time the woman accused Low of insulting her by touching her knees and feet.  At the station house she identified herself as Harriet E. Stafford.

Low initially intended to press charges, but then it was ascertained that Harriett Stafford was, in fact, Harriet E. Coffin, a Cincinnati heiress "whose uncalled-for attack on another gentleman in Boston last winter gave her unenviable notoriety," according to The Evening World.  Low told a reporter he no longer intended to prosecute.  "I do think, however, that a woman afflicted as she is should be cared for.  She will kill somebody yet, if she is allowed to run at large."

Indeed, the wealthy woman's conduct was notorious and she had been ejected from the same stage coach line, the Fifth Avenue Stage Company, earlier "for creating a disturbance."  Four days after she attacked the Lows, the New-York Tribune reported that the other tenants in the Elberon Flats where she lived, "are considerably alarmed for their own safety in consequence of the close proximity of that eccentric and wealthy person."

Thirty-nine-year-old Richard Whitehouse was the principal of White's Express Company in 69 Worth Street in 1885.  Described by The New York Times as owning "considerable property" in Brooklyn, he had a wife a two children there.  On the morning of June 9, he left home for the office, after having been up most of the night tending to his sick mother-in-law.  He complained to his wife of a severe headache and nausea.

After a few hours in the office, he rode in one of the express wagons uptown at 10:00.  At 8th and Mercer Streets, he became very sick, had the wagon stop and, after vomiting, went into a saloon for brandy.  Not feeling any better, he told the wagon driver to telegraph the office that he was too sick to return to work and, after visiting a drugstore, was going straight home.  He walked away and was never seen again.

Three days later, a search party had found no trace of him.  "The only explanation of his absence his friends make is that he was overcome by sickness," wrote The New York Times, "and becoming unconscious was taken charge of by some stranger who might have found him. But whether this person was an evil-disposed or a charitable one is a matter of much anxious discussion."  Indeed, anxious discussion was called for, since Whitehouse had had $1,000 in cash, a valuable watch and chain, and other jewelry on him.   Press coverage of the case stopped on June 11, suggesting that Whitehouse was eventually found, but leaving the details frustratingly arcane.

Both buildings continued to house tenants mostly involved in the dry goods industry.  The B.V.D Company, for instance, occupied space in the corner building in the first decade of the 20th century.  An ad in 1911 urged, "Whether you walk or work, stay in town or go away, lounge or even dance in 'stuffy' rooms, keep cool and comfortable in Loose fitting B. V. D. Coat Cut Undershirts, Knee Length Drawers and Union Suits."

The New-York Tribune, July 2, 1911 (copyright expired)

In 1928 the architectural firm of Delano & Aldrich joined the two buildings internally.  It was almost assuredly at this time that the cast iron storefront columns were encased in stone piers.

The storefront was modernized in the 1928 renovation.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The combined structures were leased by Wellington-Sears Company, founded in 1845 in Boston.  Originally selling cotton textiles, by now it dealt in household, upholstery, and industrial fabrics.  On March 6, 1950, Wellington-Sears Company purchased the building, only to sell it and move to 111 West 40th Street seven years later.

In the succeeding decades the building housed various offices, like the national headquarters of the Camp Fire Girls, and the city's Health Department offices in the 1970s.

A renovation begun in 2016 resurrected the storefront and converted the upper floors to apartments, six each on the second through fifth floors, and one on the new sixth floor, unseen from the street.

photographs by the author

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200 Years of History - 34 White Street

Around 1805 the two-and-a-half story frame house at the northeast corner of White and Church Streets was completed.  The 25-foot wide residence would have had a peaked roof with dormers.  It unclear who erected the house; but it was occupied by Abraham Moore for several years.  Because Moore was well known in city politics, it is highly doubtful that house originally held a ground floor store.

By 1851 the ground floor had been converted for a grocery store.  It was operated by Gerhard Dieckman in 1853, who lived in the upper floors.  He was too savvy to be taken in by two would-be crooks that summer.  On August 18 the New-York Daily Tribune reported "Officer Trury of the Fifth Ward, yesterday arrested two men, named Charles King and Thomas Brooks, charged with attempting to pass a counterfeit bank bill at the store of Gerhard Dyckman [sic], No. 34 White-street."

Dieckman remained for a few years, but by 1859 the store had been taken over by Christopher Burmester.  On the night of January 18 Burmester neglected to lock the door to the cellar and between 3:00 and 4:00 in the morning fire broke out there.  Because it was "discovered at an early moment," according to the New-York Daily Tribune, it "was extinguished before much damage was done."  

But firefighters quickly suspected an arsonist had entered through the unlocked door.  The New York Herald noted "The fire was subsequently found to have originated amongst some empty barrels...and the fire is supposed to have been the act of an incendiary."

The store continued to see a turnover in proprietors.  Henry Miller ran it and lived upstairs in 1861.  That year the family's pet ran away.  An advertisement in The New York Herald on October 16 read: "$10 Reward--Lost...A King Charles Dog, with white breast.  The above reward will be given by returning him to No. 34 White street, corner Church."  That the dog was beloved was evidenced in the reward--nearly $300 in today's money.

It unclear who was operating the grocery store on March 4, 1864 when The New York Times reported that the house had been sold for $15,500 (about $256,000 today).  The upstairs portion was home to the family of George Reeves and while he was a grocer, his store was at No. 44 Whitehall Street.

The store space was apparently divided by 1873.  Michael J. Gallagher, who lived in Brooklyn, ran a dry goods shop from the address while Henry A. Haack operated the grocery.  Like many grocers, Haack also sold products like wine.  It got him into trouble on August 23, 1875.  The following day The Evening Telegram reported that he had been arrested "for selling liquor on the Sabbath."  He was held in jail overnight before appearing before a judge.

Major change to the building came in 1876 when owner William Watson began significant renovations.  When they were completed in 1877 the house was now a full three stories tall and was faced in brick.  Up-to-date neo-Grec iron lintels and sills were attached to the openings and a cast iron storefront had been installed.

The stylish lintels and sills were the last word in architectural trends.

The former grocery store space was now transformed to a restaurant.  Neither of the partners, Moses King nor Louis Miller, lived in the building.  King's home was on Third Avenue and Miller's on Franklin Street.

The property continued to be in the Watson family for years.  In 1901 the title was transferred to Henry R. C. Watson, presumably a son.

By 1903 the ground floor space was no longer being described as an "eating house," but as a "saloon."  And there was more going on inside than the casual chatter and beer drinking.  Two detectives named Delaney and Rice received a tip that spring, according to The Morning Telegraph, "that a handbook was in operating in a saloon at 34 White street."   A "handbook" operation was a system of betting on horse races.

The two undercover men set out to investigate during the first week of May.  "They had no difficulty in finding the saloon, and a ticker in a corner," said the newspaper.  Detective Delancy explained later that he "hugged that ticker for about an hour, and pored over the quotations on oil, sugar, railroads and horse races."  He said "I acted as much like a sport as I knew how and Kusker eventually approached and asked if I didn't want to be something on the races."

"Kusker" was 24-year old Edward Kusker who, despite his young age, ran what police described as "his gigantic gambling operation."  Delaney feigned "mature deliberation" and then said he "wanted to make a killing on Early Eve, in the sixth."  He pulled out a marked two-dollar bill.   The Morning Telegram wrote "Kusker, says the detective, accepted the bet, and the next thing he knew he was a guest of the City of New York."

In January 1904 Alfred E. Davison purchased the building.  He updated the structure, including a new metal cornice with brackets and a neo-Classical frieze.

Levi Y. Richardson, described by a newspaper as "a wealthy stationer" moved the Ryan Stationery Company into the renovated building.  The firm had been established years earlier and acquired by Richardson that year.  Things were going well for Richardson, who had married his wife, Mary, in 1901.  They lived in a fashionable Brooklyn neighborhood.

But early in 1907 Richardson began consistently staying out late at night.  On April 18 Mary rummaged through his suit pockets and found two love letters from "two young women, one of them prominent in Brooklyn society," according to newspapers.  They left no doubt as to his dalliances, both referring to the happy days that would come after his divorce.  "In the morning, it was alleged, she charged him with duplicity, and he confessed, fell on his knees and with tears in his eyes, kissed Mrs. Richardson again and again," recounted the New-York Tribune.

But his remorse was short lived.  He asked Mary for a divorce and when she replied that she "despised divorces," he exploded.  The New-York Tribune reported on June 11, "One night, she charged, he threw a glass powder jar at her and laid violent hands on her."  After he subsequently moved out, Mary filed for separation on the grounds of "advanced cruel and inhuman treatment and abandonment."

The bad press apparently ruined Richardson's business.  That summer he filed for bankruptcy.  The Sun reminded its readers "A report published in the papers of June 11 of a suit brought in the Supreme Court, Brooklyn, by Mrs. Mary Richardson against her husband...because she found two love letters from other women in his pockets caused considerable comment at that time."

The Ryan Stationery Company survived at the address, taken over by Cornelius Steers in the summer of 1907.  He was successful and on April 25 the following year Walden's Stationery and Printer commented that he "has built up a promising business."

Although clothing manufacturer Perfect Pants Company was in the building until 1913, and outerwear firm The Ranger Sales Co. was here in 1921, it continued to house printing firms.  In 1921 Alvo Printing took the third floor and would stay for years.  

Boys' Life magazine, June 1921 (copyright expired)

Alvo Printing was joined in the building in 1927 by Joseph Eismann, "printers' machinists."

The building was painted white in the 1940's.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

As the 20th century drew to an end the Tribeca neighborhood turned trendy.  By 1994 the Baby Doll Lounge was in the space once occupied by Edward Kusker's saloon and gambling den.  On August 22 that year Anya Sacharow wrote in New York Magazine "TriBeCa hipsters slum at the Jim Jarmusch-ish Baby Doll Lounge."  It would remain in the space past the turn of the century.

In 1997 the upper section was converted to apartments, one per floor.  On February 1, 2006 Petrarca Vina e Cucina opened at street level, described by The Times as "Arqua's wine bar spin-off."

photographs by the author

Slade & Colby's 1868 281 Church Street

In the first years following the Civil War wealthy dry goods merchant Jarvis Slade turned his focus to transforming the Tribeca district from one of old brick and wooden structures to modern loft buildings.  Years later, on January 29, 1881, The Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide credited him with creating the dry goods district. "This gentleman was a pioneer in this district, and besides acquiring a large interest himself, it was mainly due to his influence that it was so rapidly covered with first-class buildings." 

Among his earliest projects was the five story loft and store building at the southeast corner of Church and White Streets.  He partnered with Gardner R. Colby to purchase the two old buildings on the site in October 1865.  
The transaction involving the wooden house at No. 35 White Street would cause headaches for the seller, Samuel Keyser, before long.

But in the meantime, Colby and Slade commenced construction on their new building in 1866.  Faced in light-colored sandstone, it was completed the following year.  Although the storefronts opened onto Church Street, giving the building its address of No. 281 Church; the 75-foot long White Street elevation was architecturally treated as the front.

Stone piers embraced the cast iron storefront sections where free-standing Corinthian columns upheld the entablature.  Each of the nearly identical upper stories was clearly defined by crisp sill courses.  Corinthian pilasters separated the segmentally-arched openings and rusticated piers ran up the corners.  A handsome French Second Empire cornice, supported on brackets, was capped by a pyramidal pediment.

Soon after the construction had begun, Samuel Keyser found himself in court.  On the abutting Church Street property was a boarding house.  For years the owners had a legal agreement with Keyser allowing them to share his rear yard--and most importantly his privy.  In April 1866 they sued; their complaint saying in part, "when Slade and Colby were building they undermined the yard so that the fence all caved in; and the privy building was carried away by the boys of the neighborhood."

While the two parties fought over the lost privy privileges, Colby and Slade filled No. 281 Church Street with, for the most part, dry goods merchants.  An exception was the silversmith firm of S. D. Johnson, here by the early 1870's.

On August 24, 1876 two burglars broke into Johnson's shop and made off with silverware valued at about $36,000 in today's money.  Police were certain they knew who the perpetrators were--William Heany and Thomas Macaveny, the "well-known Fourteenth ward thieves," as described by The Evening Telegram.  The pair was picked up on Hester Street the following day.  "The prisoners, who are young men, denied any knowledge of the burglary," said the article.  Despite the fact that the arresting officers apparently had no hard evidence against them they were held in default of bail.

In the first years of the 1890's a sixth floor, nearly hidden by the cornice and pediment, was added to the building which continued to house mostly dry goods businesses, like Letson & Hashagen.  

Just the the roofline of the new top floor can be seen above the original cornice.

But there were still exceptions to that rule as well.  By 1894 New York branch of Mulhens & Kropff was in the building and would remain through the turn of the century.  The firm imported colognes, soaps, and "extracts" from its Cologne, Germany laboratories.

On December 1, 1895 Merck's Market Report said "a particularly excellent business is being done in the transparent glycerin soaps.  Mr. Kropff speaks in the highest terms of the White-Rose soap, which is a star among the glycerin varieties."  The article added that Mulhens & Kropff's "'Eau de Cologne' has held its own in the United States against all competitors for the last sixty years."

The Puritan, February 1899 (copyright expired)

The Eau de Cologne was somewhat pricey.  A two-ounce sample bottle could be had by mail order in 1899 for 30 cents; nearly $10 in today's dollars.

Frederick Hashagen, a partner in Letson & Hashagen, was troubled that year.  He left his Brooklyn house as usual on November 19, but instead of going to his office here he checked into the Grand Union Hotel under the name of J. S. Harrison.  At around noon he was found dead in his room with a bullet wound in his chest.  "The man is believed to have committed suicide," said the Brooklyn Daily Eagle."

It was possibly serious business problems that prompted Hashagen's desperate action.  Within months Letson & Hashagen declared bankruptcy.

Sharing the building with Mulhens & Kropff in the first years of the 20th century were linen merchants R. Lindner and George P. Boyce & Co., and Cawley & Weixelbaum, makers of handles for canes and umbrellas.   The latter moved into second floor in 1905.

In reporting on the firm's move Trunks, Leather Goods and Umbrellas described the new space as a "spacious and well lighted loft" and added "They will not confine the business to high class novelties, but make a specialty of good values in popular priced handles of European manufacture."

Trunks, Leather Goods & Umbrellas, April 1906 (copyright expired)

In 1908 cotton goods merchants R. E. Walsh & Co. and Thos. J. Conroy leased space in the building.  They were joined in 1916 by M. Gardner & Co., linen importers.   

The Colby family still owned a portion of the property at the time.  Henry F. Colby, who lived in Dayton, Ohio, died in 1916 leaving the holding to his wife.

In the first years following World War I Weissfeld Bros. & Gross was in the building.  The firm manufactured hospital, restaurant and hotel items like lab coats, aprons, caps, "luggers," and such.  In its May 1919 issue, American Druggist reported "This firm manufactures clothing and uniforms of every description and their many years' standing in this industry is ample evidence of the quality of the product."  To bring home its point, the article said "A neat and clean looking, dapper druggist will attract new customers to his store apart from his regular trade which will recommend him for his appearance."

In September that year the National Retail Tea and Coffee Merchants' Association held its annual convention in St. Louis.  It was a major affair, lasting three days.  An important feature was a exhibition of goods by industry-related manufacturers and dealers.  Two exhibitors came from the Church Street building.

In October Simmons' Spice Mill reported that Gardner Textile Co. had exhibited "table clothes, table sets consisting of a table cloth and six napkins, (boxed), napkins towels and other kindred articles used in the household."  Rendrag Co., Inc. had also staged a display, theirs consisting of "various kinds of ladies' handkerchiefs, embroidered, packed in ornate boxes, three to a box."

Weissfeld Bros. & Gross and Gardner Textile Co. were still here in 1922, along with hospital linens manufacturer Geo. P. Boyce & Co.

The Modern Hospital, February 1922 (copyright expired)

The Colby family still retained ownership of the building in 1938--more than seven decades after its construction.  On February 1, 1938.  Lincoln Fabrics, Inc. occupied the store and basement levels and the long-established dry goods firm Henry Glass & Co. was on the top floor.  The second and fourth floors were vacant.   Fire broke out in the building that morning, destroying the store of Lincoln Fabrics.  Smoke rose throughout the entire building.  It was intense enough to damage the stock of Henry Glass & Co.

The last quarter of the century saw profound changes in the old dry goods district, now known as Tribeca.  Where Lincoln Fabrics, Inc. had operated its store the trendy restaurant Arqua opened in 1987.  On May 4 New York Magazine reported "The newest good place to eat Italian food, according to Italian-cooking expert Giuliano Bugialli, is Arqua."

A conversion completed in 2002 resulted in one sprawling apartment per floor above the storefront.  Matteo Boglione opened his restaurant, White & Church, with partner Gian Perugini here in the summer of 2011.  Through it all Slade & Colby's striking 1868 sideways-facing structure has remained remarkably intact.

photographs by the author

Mantillas, Mystery and Dry Goods - 293 Church Street

In 1867 Walter Jones demolished the old wooden structure at No. 199 Church Street (along with another in the rear yard) and began construction on a modern loft and store building on the site.  His architect, whose name has been lost, was up to date in architectural trends and turned to the recently popular French Second Empire style.

Completed in 1868 its cast iron storefront featured engaged columns and paneled piers.  The side piers of the second floor were rusticated, while those on the third through fifth were delicately decorated with incised designs.  Engaged Corinthian columns separated the segmentally-arched openings.  At the top floor the street address was prominently carved into the facade.

Interestingly, Walter Jones and his wife, Barbara, shared ownership of the building.  They leased the store to Herman Gershel who ran his mantilla shop here.  Mantillas had been a staple of Victorian fashion since before the Civil War.  Its various styles were worn either over the head, as a sort of veil, or around the shoulders like a shawl.

This woman to the left in this fashion plate wears a green mantilla.

In the early hours of January 26, 1871 fire broke out in the store.  Before it was extinguished $20,000 worth of damage--about $424,000 in today's money--had been done.  The New York Herald reported a shocking development.  It said that Herman's brother, Adolph, who was the bookkeeper, "has been arrested on suspicion of arson, in order to obtain the insurance of $10,000."

This came as news to Adolph who read the account in the evening papers.  His letter to the editor clarified that he had been summoned to the office of the Fire Marshal for questioning, but that he had never been arrested nor charged.

On August 28, 1876 Walter and Barbara Jones sold the 21-foot wide building to Henry H. Powers.  His family would retain ownership for decades to come.

Among Powers's tenants was clothing manufacturer A. & J. Levy.  A. Linger was an employee and in his off-time volunteered with the State National Guard.  The situation did not interfere with his work duties until the summer of 1877 when The Great Railroad Strike brought freight trains to a halt and subsequently threatened America's industries.  Federal troops and the National Guard were deployed to quell the numerous individual strikes.  Vickers was among those sent away.

In his absence he lost his job.  The Evening Telegram came to his defense, shaming his employers in its August 1, 1877 issue.  "Captain A. Lingner, of Company I, Eleventh regiment, a cutter for A. & J. Levy, clothiers, at No. 199 Church street, was dismissed from their employ for presuming to protect their lives and property."

By the time Leonard J. Haas & Co., cloak and suit makers, moved into the building the address had become No. 293.  In 1891 the firm employed fourteen men, two boys under 18, twelve women, and three teen girls.  The staff worked 59 hours per week.

Scandal centered around the head of D. W. MacLeod & Co. beginning in the summer of 1901.  Born in Ireland, Donald W. MacLeod had come to America as a boy.  He had started the firm, which imported woolens and linens, in 1877.  In 1889 he had married Harriet Bush (known as Hattie), described by The New York Press as "a strikingly beautiful woman."  The bride was 18-years old and the groom 52.

The New York Times noted on December 11, 1901 that MacLeod "is said to have amassed a large fortune," and The New York Press said the couple's house on Carroll Street in Brooklyn was "one of the handsomest in that section."  Their summer estate in Middletown Township, New Jersey, sat on 300 acres.

Trouble seems to have begun in April 1901 when Emma Frances Martin Rice sued her husband, Melvin, for divorce.  Newspapers printed the name of the woman she claimed was carrying on an affair with her husband--Harriet MacLeod.  Soon afterward Donald MacLeod stopped coming to the Church Street office, "because of ill health."

MacLeod's relatives were not so sure.  They tried to see him starting in April but were continually barred from entering the house.  Harriet insisted he was too unwell to have visitors.  She hired four guards to keep watch over the house.  In August a nephew, Donald W. MacLeod, Jr., went to the residence.  The New York Press reported on August 17 "One of the men on guard he said assaulted him and drove him away."

Harriet was not so concerned about her husband's health that she was unable to remodel their summer home.  She hired architect Thomas J. Emery to alter and enlarge it, including a library wing.

Finally Richard MacLeod went to court complaining that his brother "was being kept a prisoner by his wife in their home" and that "Mrs. MacLeod has three or four men constantly on guard at the house to keep her husband from going out or from seeing or speaking to his relatives."  On August 13 Deputy Sheriff McAuliffe arrived at the house with a writ of habeas corpus which demanded that Hattie produce her husband in court.  The New-York Tribune reported "He says that when he went to the house he was told that she was out.  Doubting it, he went in, and found her in the dining room.  Mrs. MacLeod admitted yesterday that her husband was in the house, but could not be seen."

Hattie showed up at court, but not with Donald.  Her attorney handed the judge an affidavit signed by a physician which claimed MacLeod was too sick to leave the house.  He also presented a letter signed by Donald MacLeod "in which he said he did not care to see his brother."  And there was another letter signed by him, which said he was aware of the bad publicity concerning Hattie and Rice, but declared "a belief in her innocence."  To the frustration of the MacLeod family, the judge dismissed the writ of habeas corpus.

On December 10 MacLeod's brothers picked up their morning newspapers to discover that he had died two days earlier.   The New-York Tribune mentioned "When Mr. MacLeod died on Sunday night the brothers were not informed, and knew nothing of the death until they read the notice on Tuesday in the papers."

The funeral was held in the Brooklyn house on December 11.  The New-York Tribune noted "Mr. MacLeod's two brothers...were allowed by the widow to attend the funeral and to view the body before it was taken to Greenwood Cemetery."  Noticeably absent from the service was Hattie.  "Mrs. MacLeod did not attend her husband's funeral.  Her lawyer said she was prostrated and unable to leave her room."  The article added "It is understood that the bulk of the estate, which is valued at more than $500,000, goes to Mrs. Hattie B. MacLeod, the widow."  That amount would top $15 million today.

It was not the end of the story.  Within the year Hattie was secretly married to Melvin Rice.  In a move that most likely infuriated her former in-laws, Hattie had her new husband appointed president of D. W. MacLeod & Co.

The MacLeod family were not through with her.  In 1906 they sued to overturn the will, asserting that "the provisions thereof, were secured by the fraud and undue influence" of Harriet and Melvin Rice.  The case dragged on for years.

No. 293 Church Street continued to be home to apparel and dry goods firms.  In the 1910's tenants included the hosiery and under firm J. Friedman & Co., the Equitable Suspender Company, and the Enterprise Clothing Company.

The building was still owned by the Powers family at the time.  In 1914 Harry S. Powers was slapped with a violation from the Fire Department demanding "fireproofing and structural alterations."

The export business of Ralph Kirsch was here by 1919 and would remain at least into the mid-1920's.  On May 13, 1922 a fire broke out in his shop; however the damage does not appear to have been significant.

The original appearance of the ground floor can be seen in this photograph taken around 1940.  via the NYC Department of Records & Information Services

By the last quarter of the century the shop where women once shopped for fashionable mantillas had become a food shop.  The string of owners had difficulty pleasing the Department of Health, however.  The shops were closed for violations in 1979 and in 1981.

Artists and others were making slap-dash renovations throughout Tribeca to make lofts intended for manufacturing residential and studio spaces.  It is unclear how long people had been living in the upper floors of No. 293 before renovations were completed in 2007 to make it legally compliant.  A subsequent renovation in 2013 refabricated much of the front facade.

The handsome, period-appropriate storefront dates greatly from 2013.

photographs by the author