J. Morgan Slade's 1880 36 White Street

 

Born in 1836, Seth Mellen Milliken co-founded the dry goods and textile firm of Deering-Milliken Co.  Having amassed a fortune by the mid-1870s, he invested in speculative real estate.  In 1880, Milliken purchased the converted vintage house at 36 White Street, just east of Church Street.  As early as 1821, when the neighborhood was almost exclusively residential, the R. Tagart's School operated from the house.  Now Milliken hired architect Jarvis Morgan Slade to design a loft and store building on the site.

The 27-year-old architect had already made his mark in the dry goods district known today as Tribeca, having designed commercial structures in a variety of historic styles and materials.  Among his most striking was the David S. Brown Soap Store building at 8 Thomas Street--a brick and stone Victorian Gothic confection.

Slade's plans, filed in April 1880, described a five-story brick building with "galvanized iron cornice."  He projected the construction costs at $20,000--about $633,000 in 2025 terms.  For Milliken's project, he turned to the fashionable neo-Grec style, splashing it with whimsical Queen Anne details.

Slade's cast iron storefront was highly unusual.  Two beefy piers on either end were incised to suggest fluting and wore flat, egg-and-dart capitals.  The storefront was deeply recessed behind the cast iron elements.  Two thin, deep piers with Ionic capitals supported two shorter examples, like circus acrobats balancing atop the shoulders of another.

The architect chose a warm sandstone to contrast with the red brick of the upper floors.  Other than the identical, pencil-thin cast iron columns separating the grouped windows, each floor was treated separately.  And, yet, by placing a stone arch above the fourth floor openings, Slade gave the mid-section the visual appearance of a single large segmental arch.  Stone moldings crowned with rosette-incised panels transformed the brick piers of the top floor to pilasters.

Milliken's project was profitable.  He sold the building in September 1882 for $64,000--just over $2 million today. 

An early tenant was Nathan Cohen, who dealt in trimmings.  His success afforded him the funds to purchase at least two tenement buildings.  Around 1890, his wife, whom he married in 1859, convinced him to transfer title to his properties, including the business, to her.  The decision would end their decades long marital bliss.

Cohen began experiencing financial difficulties in 1891 and, according to The New York Times, "his creditors chased after assets until their legs ached."  He asked his wife to return the properties, but she refused.  "And ever since Cohen and his wife have been out [i.e., at odds]," said The New York Times.

Cohen retaliated against his wife by filing complaints to the Health Department.  They purported that the plumbing and sanitary conditions of the tenement buildings were unhealthy.  He additionally alerted the Fire Department that "they were liable to burn," and told the Building Department that they were unsafe.  The New York Times reported that his fictitious suits against his wife's properties were filed "in various names," but "were discontinued one by one."  He then sued her for $800 for money he claimed he had loaned her over their years together.

One day, Mrs. Cohen discovered her husband attempting to spirit away the household silverware to pawn.  She "recovered the silverware and thrashed Cohen with a broom," according to The Times.  "The couple frequently assaulted each other, and Mrs. Cohen made Cohen sleep down stairs.  He had a habit of getting up at 2 A. M. and yelling names at her," said the newspaper.  The domestic rift affected the 36 White Street business, and in 1892 it failed.

Another Cohen in the building, presumably not related, was Jacob Cohen, a partner with Moses L. Rosenfeld in the shirt manufacturing firm Cohen & Rosenfeld.  The firm moved in upon organizing in January 1886.  An audit of the books on January 1, 1893, showed that the firm was on shaky financial ground.  Owners of two creditors, Abraham Steinam and William L. Strong & Co., panicked when they saw crates leaving the building on October 18.  The truck driver said he had removed 30 "large cases of goods."  Cohen and Rosenfeld, aware that their business was about to fail, were attempting to sneak their inventory out of the building, safe from being attached.  The ploy did not work.

On October 19, the New York Herald reported that the sheriff "took charge yesterday of the place of business of Cohen & Rosenfield."  The article said, "Seven cases had been found stored in a warehouse under a fictitious name."

Other tenants in the building at the time were Shaw & Peck, linen merchants; the Art Fabric Co., textile designers; and dry goods importer Joseph L. Frame.

Joseph L. Frame died at the age of 63 on March 10, 1903, ending the business.  The Hearn department store on West 14th Street purchased the entire stock of the "prominent importer," as described by its advertisement in The New York Times on April 12, 1903.  The ad revealed the wide-ranging items in which Frame dealt--linen fringed cloths, satin damask dinner sets, dress linens, "glass towellings," linen napkins and such.

The Art Fabric Co. introduced a surprising item just in time for Christmas 1904--a cloth "life size doll."  The "clothes" were printed onto the fabric and the doll came with shoes that "can be put on and off."  Standing 2.5 feet tall, it sold for 50 cents.

The Life Size Doll was touted as having no clothes to ruin or get lost.  New-York Tribune, December 11, 1904 (copyright expired)

Among the tenants in 1913 were the Perfect Pants Co., and Robert Watson & Sons, makers and importers of "handkerchiefs and linen lawns," according to an advertisement in September that year.  The firm's factory was in Lurgan, Ireland.

Robert Watson & Sons was still in the building in 1919, but they would have to find a new location.  On April 27, the New-York Tribune reported that linen dealer Watts-Stebbins & Co. had leased "all the lofts at 36 White Street."

The venerable 34 White Street next door was a relic of the early development of the area.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Watts-Stebbins & Co. may have leased the entire upper building to eliminate inquisitive co-tenants.  Three months earlier, Congress ratified the 18th Amendment, known as the Volstead Act.  It demanded that starting on January 17, 1920 the manufacture or sale of alcohol would be prohibited.  It took Prohibition agents a little time to discover Watts-Stebbins & Co.'s sideline, but on September 17, 1922, the New-York Tribune reported that agents "raided a linen establishment occupying four floors at 36 White Street, and [seized liquor] in excess of $500,000."  The raid was triggered when an undercover agent visited the address earlier and talked to a clerk, Joseph Elliott.  Elliott sold him six bottles of whisky for $30.

Manhattan's downtown district, including Tribeca, was  celebrated for its architecture in 1975, when June was officially proclaimed by the City Planning Commission "Lower Manhattan on Exhibit Month."  Part of the exhibitions and activities was a quirky "fashion show" of famous buildings on parade.  On June 19, The New York Times explained, "The buildings were actually costumes created and worn by architects and artists, and they were put on to dramatize the area's architectural heritage and evolution."  Among the structures represented in the parade was 36 White Street.

The third quarter of the 20th century saw a renewed interest in the Tribeca area as industrial lofts were converted to artists' studios and living spaces, and stores that once sold fabrics and trimmings became trendy shops and cafes.  In 1981, Jarvis Morgan Slade's handsome 36 White Street was converted to apartments, one per floor above the storefront.

photographs by the author