The 1854 55 Warren Street (aka 55 Murray)

 

photograph by Anthony Bellov

A French family resided in the vintage house at 55 Murray Street between West Broadway and Church Street in 1853.  On October 20 that year, an advertisement written in French sought, "We ask for a good Frenchwoman who knows how to sew well.  Contact 55 Murray Street between 12 and 2, after noon."

The family would soon have to move.  That year former district attorney James R. Whiting purchased the property and that directly behind it at 55 Warren Street.  He erected a five-story store and loft building on the site, completed in 1854.  Although Whiting (who would be elected to the bench of the New York Supreme Court the next year) was listed as both the builder and owner, he indubitably commissioned an adept architect to design his structure.

Faced in marble above cast iron storefronts, the Warren and Murray Street facades were identical.  Their striking Italianate elements were drawn from Renaissance palazzi--alternating triangular and arched pediments over the center openings, prominent molded cornices over the others, and delicately carved cresting over those of the second floor.  The marble cornice was supported by scrolled, foliate brackets.

The details were drawn from the Italian Renaissance.  photograph by Anthony Bellov

The initial tenants were importers Bradford, Heath & Clark, operated by George P. Bradford, Charles Heath and John Q. Clark; and boot manufacturer Howes, Hyatt & Co., owned by Rueben W. Howes and Stephan Hyatt.

Around 1859, some of the floors were divided, giving certain tenants the 55 Warren Street address only.  Among those was a shirt manufacturer, and one of his employees seems to have been embarking on a more artistic career: the formation of a band.  An advertisement on June 8, 1859 read:

Wanted--A violinist, a good player.  One willing to travel, and capable of leading at a performance; must be satisfied with a moderate salary.  Apply at 55 Murray street, up stairs, in the shirt store.

  

Alexander Platt worked in the building in 1865 when he found himself in a highly embarrassing situation on November 29.  Platt went to Greene Street, notorious for having no fewer that two dozen houses of prostitution.  The New York Times reported that he accompanied "Cecilia Austin, otherwise Flora Reed, a syren [sic] from Greene-street" to her house.  The next day he realized his valuable gold watch was gone.  Prostitutes most often got away with thievery since their clients avoided the humiliation and scandal that would accompany the reporting of the crime.  Such was not the case with Platt and Cecilia was arrested later that day.

By the last quarter of the century, the tenant list was predominately glass and hardware dealers.  In 1879 they included Williams, White & Churchill, hardware, and S. N. Wolff & Co., glass (listed at 55 Warren Street); and Vogel & Reynolds, "dealers in glassware" at the Murray Street address.

At the turn of the century, the hardware firm of Surpless, Dunne & Co. was on the first floor and the New York Bag Company occupied the entire second floor.  A. L. Tuska, Son & Co., importers of Japanese ware, also leased space in the building.

On the night of July 20, 1901, a passerby saw smoke pouring out of the windows of the Warren Street side.  A fire had started under the stairway on the second floor.  The New York Times reported, "the flames quickly spread to the thousands of tightly packed bags, causing thick volumes of smoke to fill the whole building."  The fire was contained to the New York Bag Company space, although the upper floors were slightly damaged by smoke and Surpless, Dunne & Co. suffered water damage.

Elegant carved marble cresting crowns two of the second floor windows.  photograph by Anthony Bellov

A much more serious fire broke out eight months later.  On Saturday night, March 15, 1902, the engineer of a Sixth Avenue elevated train noticed smoke coming from a fourth floor window.  He stopped his train midblock between Church Street and West Broadway directly in front of Fire Patrol No. 1 and blew his whistle several times.  He shouted that there was a fire at 55 Murray Street.

The blaze soon grew to a three-alarm fire.  The New York Times reported, "An exciting incident occurred soon after the second alarm had been sent in.  Four firemen of Engine Company No. 7 had climbed to the fourth story by the fire escape, and as they reached the cage a sheet of flame burst forth, completely enveloping them."  The water tower truck had just gotten into position.  The stream of water "struck the men with great force," but saved their lives.

The Annual Report of the Committee on Fire Patrol reported, "Fire originated on fourth floor of No. 55 Warren Street and extended to fifth floor, then through roof and fifth floor and roof of No. 55 Murray Street."  The blaze also damaged the abutting buildings at 53 Murray, 53 Warren and 57 Warren Street.

The Murray Street elevation is identical to that on Warren Street.  photograph by Anthony Bellov

The Motor Car Equipment Company leased three floors in the repaired building in 1905.  Established in 1902 by Emil Grossman, it handled automobile supplies like batteries and tires.  Automobile Topics said their new space contained "approximately 10,000 square feet."

A. L. Tuska, Son & Co. was still here.  On November 25, 1907, the American Druggist and Pharmaceutical Record suggested, "In casting about for striking holiday goods the druggist could not do better than include the line of beautiful Japanese novelties which are imported into this country direct by A. L. Tuska, Son & Co. 55 Murray Street, New York."  

Also in the building that year was Plume & Atwood Mfg. Co., makers of "electric portables," such as "lamps, unmounted gongs for electric bells, etc."

In 1917, Columbia Graphophone Co., makers of the Dictaphone, leased the entire building.  An announcement in The New York Times on July 9, 1917 explained, "And here are the reasons for the move: The steadily increasing adoption of The Dictaphone System by business men generally in and around New York has made more room and better facilities a necessity."

The New York Times, July 9, 1917 (copyright expired)

Another advertisement stressed that the country's entry into World War I would make the Dictaphone crucial to the workings of an office.  "You are going to lose some of your workers through conscription--possibly many--and you must be prepared for the loss."

The Columbia Graphophone Company's residency would be short.  In 1920 it completed construction of its own building at Fifth Avenue and 34th Street.  In March that year, the I. Blyn Shoe Company purchased the property.  Founded in 1874 and incorporated in 1923, it operated Red Cross Shoe and Rambler Shoe stores.  The firm moved its main office into the building and continued to rent unneeded space.

The company was the victim of audacious thieves in 1924.  On April 27, The New York Times reported, "Burglars broke open two safes and stole $5,000 in the offices of the I. Blyn Shoe Company, 55 Warren Street, yesterday morning or Friday night.  The police think the burglars hid in the building before it was closed Friday night.  They entered the offices by boring a hole through a wall."

I. Blyn Shoe Company operated numerous stores across the country.  But the Great Depression dealt a fatal blow to the firm and it declared bankruptcy in July 1931.  Jacob Blyn, a widower, moved into his sister's apartment on Riverside Drive.  On July 27, 1936, The New York Times reported, "Jacob Blyn, 67 years old, ended his life early yesterday by opening four jets on a gas range in the kitchen of the apartment of his sister, Mrs. Hannah Stoff."

photograph by Anthony Bellov

A renaissance in the Tribeca neighborhood began in the last quarter of the century as industrial lofts were converted to artists' working and living spaces.  In 2013, 55 Warren Street was converted to residential use above the ground floor.  The renovation resulted in one apartment per floor.

many thanks to historian Anthony Bellov for suggesting this post

The Doubleday & Beak Building - 49 Murray Street

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

non-credited photographs by the author

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The 1892 Postal Telegraph Building - 253 Broadway

 

photo by epicgenius

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

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

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

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

photo by epicgenius

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

photo by beyond my ken

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

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The 1895 Gibbes Building - 66 West Broadway

 

In the early decades of the 19th century, the neighborhood around West Broadway and Murray Street was home to affluent families.  An advertisement in 1833 gave a telling description of 65 Murray Street, on the northwest corner of West Broadway.  The three-story-and-attic house had "folding doors between front and back parlors" (what today we would call pocket doors), "handsome marble mantle pieces, grates in first and second stories, four finished bed-rooms in the garret."  The garret, or attic, bedrooms would have been reserved for four live-in servants. The ad called 65 Murray Street a "desirable residence for genteel families."

But as the end of the century neared, little hint of the Federal style homes survived as loft and store buildings increasingly replaced them.  On February 2, 1895, the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide reported, "At No. 65 Murray street a new seven-story stone and iron fire-proof store and loft building, 25x125, is to be erected."  Horace S. Ely & Co. had hired architect William E. Bloodgood to design the structure.  

Bloodgood had been active in the district for two decades, often working in partnership with Freeman Bloodgood as Bloodgood & Bloodgood.   Among his handsome designs in the area was 510 Broadway, completed in 1879.

His design for the Gibbes Building would be markedly modern and different, one of the first New York City structures to draw on the Commercial Style, which was still developing in Chicago.  Clad in Roman brick above a two-story cast iron base, its verticality was underscored with five four-story elliptical arches on West Broadway, each separated by Ionic piers.  The deeply overhanging cornice and the exposed rivet heads of the second story lintel were typical of the Commercial Style.  Bloodgood was not willing to completely forego tried-and-true styles, adorning the two-story limestone entrance frame with Beaux Arts decoration, and giving the cast iron piers expected 19th century ornamentation.

The Record & Guide noted the up-to-date amenities.  "The structure will contain elevators, steam-heating equipment, electric wiring and fixtures, structural, architectural and galvanized ironwork, iron shutters, and sanitary plumbing."

The Gibbes Building filled, mostly, with publishing firms.  A notable exception was William Somerville's Sons, which signed a lease in 1895.  "The Messrs. Sommerville have become very extensive dealers in scrap rubber," said The India Rubber World.

More typical tenants were the Industrial Press, publishers of  the monthly periodical Machinery; William E. Wilkins, publisher of the Merchants' Review; and Ashbel R. Elliott, head of A. R. Elliott Advertising and A. R. Elliott Publishing Co., which published medical books.  Also associated with the latter firm were Daniel M. and John M. Elliott.

At around noon on October 29, 1900, John M. Elliott took a lunch break on the roof of the Gibbes Building.  Twenty-five minutes later a massive explosion occurred in the Tarrant Building at Greenwich and Warren Streets, about a block and a half away.   Elliot watched in astonishment, later describing the event to a reporter from The Brooklyn Daily Eagle who reported:

He says the force of the first explosion was directly upward for a matter of thirty feet.  Then the column of debris spread and fell.  The roof of the building went up with the rest and he could hear the cries and screams of injured people.  The third explosion shook the building where he was and debris fell all about him.

Thomas McFarland, a clerk, had also left his desk in the Gibbes Building around noon.  He was standing in front of the Home Made Restaurant when the first blast occurred.  He told a reporter from the New-York Tribune, "I was hurled against a truck and lay there for some time without knowing what had happened.  I was badly bruised, but was not other wise hurt."

Another passerby to be blown off his feet was Harry Rose.  The Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, "When he picked himself up he said he saw bodies flying through the air and landing in the flames."  The horror of the event sent working girls rushing for safety.  "At the building at 66 West Broadway," said The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, "a large number of girls employed in buildings nearer the explosion took refuge."

Edward F. Sweet was a private insurance broker.  His one-man business did not necessitate an office and around the time of the explosion he was renting desk space from A. R. Elliott.  An advertisement in The Evening Post on January 31, 1902 read in part, "If applied for promptly, I can supply a limited amount of absolutely safe life annuities on exceptionally favorable terms."  

It was common for well-to-do businessmen to move into their clubs or to a high-end boarding house during the summer months when their families went off to resorts.  The practice defrayed the expense and bother of keeping their homes open and full staff of servants employed.  Sweet's wife sailed to Europe in the summer of 1902, and he took rooms in a boarding house on Fifth Avenue at 99th Street.

The 50-year-old Sweet was an avid bicyclist, or "wheelman."  The Evening World said his bicycle was "his almost constant companion."  On September 12, the newspaper reported, "Edward F. Sweet, an insurance broker at No. 66 West Broadway, was found dead to-day on the beach at Fort Hamilton.  His body, naked except for a pair of swimming trunks, was discovered by a policeman."  The New York Times presumed he was the victim of "a fatal swim," saying "Not far away on the beach lay his bicycle and a bicycle suit."

By 1911 the publishers in the Gibbes Building were being supplanted by crockery and glass firms.  Among the tenants that year were the New York offices of Fostoria Glass Company, the French China Company, Central Glass Works, and the Consolidated Lamp & Glass Company.

The Gibbes Building in 1914 looked little different than it does today.  from the collection of the New York Public Library.

Not every publisher had left the building, though.  As late as 1922 the A. R. Elliott Publishing Co. was still here, publishing the American Druggist, the New York Medical Journal, and the Spanish language Revista Americana, De Farmacia, Medicina y Hospitales.

At some point St. Luke's Hospital acquired the property.  It sold the Gibbes Building in March 1920 to the 416 West 215th Street Corporation.  The transaction prompted the New-York Tribune to mention, "It is occupied by many crockery firms," and The New York Times to call it "by far the finest office building in the neighborhood" and to point out its "graceful lines with perfect light arrangement."

Among the tenants at the time along with A. R. Elliott and the Consolidated Lamp & Glass Co. were the drug firm Meteor Products Co., Inc., the M. C. Liebert Manufacturing Co., the National Rattan & Cane Co., and the exporting firm Pass & Seymour, Inc.  Sharing a floor with Pass & Seymour were the Eagle Safety Razor Company and the Marcelle Hair Net Company.  On the second floor was Stewart's Chrystal & China Shop.

Like scores of companies owned by German Americans, the National Rattan & Cane Co. had been seized by the Government during World War I under the 1917 Trading with the Enemy Act.  It was still being operated by a Government administrator in 1920 when the Gibbes Building changed hands.

On the night of May 11, 1921, burglars broke into the Gibbes Building.  The safe crackers systematically went from one office to another, eventually hitting eleven companies and breaking into seven safes.  Their hard and long work went unrewarded, however.  The following day the New York Herald reported that after forcing open the safes "with bars and chisels" the would-be thieves "were disappointed in their search for loot."  The article said, 'no money or securities were stolen from any of the offices."  The Evening World explained, "downtown business men keep no money in the safes these days."

Gutsy robbers were more successful on August 24, 1934.  Just after George Ferris opened his jewelry shop two men walked in

and overpowered him.  They placed Ferris in handcuffs, then made off with 36 bar pins valued at $300.  The Sun reported, "Ferris was taken to Police Headquarters where the handcuffs were sawed from his wrists."

An unexpected tenant by the mid-1930s was the Aquarium Stock Company of New York.  Founded in 1910, it was the country's largest supplier of aquarium products.  When the Sportsmen's Show opened in the Grand Central Palace in 1938, the company presented a stunning display.  The New York Sun reported on February 19, "Twenty-one stainless steel domestic aquaria, comprising fifty species of tropical fish, are among the features to be seen."  The journalist was especially taken with "a ghost fish from the Amazon, called aternarchus albifrons."

Among the tenants in the 1940s was Harry Ross, who bought and sold "microscopes, telescopes, binoculars; all scientific, chemical laboratory apparatus," according to an ad in Popular Science in 1944.

Little changed today, the Gibbes Building remains, as judged by The New York Times a century ago, one of the finest buildings in the area.

 photographs by the author

many thanks to historian Anthony Bellov for suggesting this post

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Thomas & Son's 1856 41 Murray Street

 

In 1855 attorney Jonathan J. Broome was leasing the house at 41 Murray Street from English-born merchant Ebenezer Cauldwell.  At the time, the blocks around him, until recently exclusively residential, were rapidly being transformed with new commercial structures.  Within the year Cauldwell either demolished or substantially renovated the house.  His architects, almost assuredly Thomas & Son, produced an Italianate loft-and-store building faced in marble above a cast iron storefront.  Each of the segmentally arched upper floor windows wore a molded lintel.

Although Cauldwell was a major importer of china, glass and earthenware, his project was an investment rather than a site for his own business.  He leased the upper floors to Patten, Lane & Merriam, wholesale dealers in boots and shoes, while hardware and cutlery dealer Thomas E. Bishop & Co., took the first floor store.  The firms had hardly settle into their new home before it was nearly lost.

At 3:00 on the morning of November 9, 1856, fire broke out in the cellar of 39 Warren Street, directly behind 41 Murray Street.  It was daylight before firefighters could extinguish the blaze, which by now had spread, resulting in what The New York Times called "the utter destruction of four of the finest buildings in that part of the City."  Although 41 Murray Street was not totally destroyed, it was heavily damaged.  The New York Times reported, "The rear of No. 41 Murray-street was damaged by the falling of the adjacent building, which demolished the roof, carrying away the floors down to the sub-cellar."  Thomas E. Bishop & Co. sustained losses of $15,000--a substantial $475,000 in today's dollars.  Despite the rocky beginnings, both firms moved back into the building following the repairs.  

In 1859 Thomas E. Bishop & Co. sent a clerk, Henry M. Malone to the West to collect outstanding debts.  Malone went to Illinois and Michigan and was successful in collecting the equivalent of $52,000 in today's money.  The problem was that he kept it for himself.  He was tracked down and arrested, and on July 27 The Family Herald reported, "The prisoner denied the charge preferred against him, and appeared sanguine of being able prove his innocence in the matter."

Patten, Lane & Merriam still occupied the upper floors at the time, but both firms would be gone by the mid-1860's.   They were replaced by B. Diamant & Co., importers of "French, English, and German Fancy Goods," and Abraham s. Herman, dealer in "cloths, cassimeres & vestings."

The following decade saw hardware dealer E. A. Heath & Co. and the Automatic Signal Telegraphic office (a fire and burglar alarm firm) in the building.  James H. Ingersoll was the principal in E. A. Heath & Co.  The firm had a highly lucrative contract with Tammany Hall.  But problems came in 1871 when The New York Times published details of the city's financial accounts.  The Committee of Seventy was formed in September to examine and corruption in the Tweed ring.

"Boss" William M. Tweed was arrested in 1872.  The scandal spread to the merchants involved in Tammany's web of kickbacks and graft.  On June 25, 1872 the New York Herald reported that a petition had been submitted in court "to have the hardware firm in Murray street, of which James H. Ingersoll is principal, thrown involuntary bankruptcy."  The article noted, "The place of business is at No. 41 Murray street, and is said to have been, up to the time of the recent Tammany exposure, the source from which the city obtained its hardware."

The Murray Street building remained in the Cauldwell family until March 2, 1882, when it was sold at auction to Edward G. Tinker for $36,100 (approximately $943,000 today).   He altered the ground floor for a surprising tenant--Fire Insurance Patrol No. 1.   

Established in 1839, New York Board of Fire Underwriters was a private organization, distinct from the Fire Department.  It was formed by insurance companies that sought to prevent or at least reduce the loss of property caused by fires.   Claims by merchants for lost inventory were often due to water damage caused by the fire department as much as by the fire itself.

The Patrol would rush to a fire working side-by-side with fire fighters, laying tarps to protect goods from water , removing goods when possible, and all the while fighting the flames.

The storefront of 41 Murray Street was renovated with a centered bay to accommodate Patrol No. 1's fire truck.   In the meantime, the upper floors continued to be leased to more expected merchants, like Julius Wile & Brother, importers and wine and liquor; wine dealer Herman Cantor; and Philip Michaelson & Son, brush merchants.

Having a Fire Patrol next door had both its benefits and drawbacks.  On May 27, 1893, William J. Darnstaedt, who ran a "bar glass ware" business at 43 Murray Street, testified, "The building No. 41 is the fire patrol.  We hear the engines whenever they are coming out.  We perceive the effects of the ordinary noise of a concern of that kind being next door.  We hear them when they get the alarm in; we hear them when they go out, as we naturally would."

Fire Patrol No. 1 would remain in the building for decades.  And, like the engines of the regular Fire Department, there were sometimes accidents.  On October 15, 1906, for instance, the Paterson, New Jersey newspaper The Morning Call reported:

An alarm of fire at No. 3 Desbrosses street this afternoon called out Salvage Corps patrol truck No. 1 from the headquarters at No. 41 Murray street.  The vehicle, weighing close to 5,000 pounds, swung out of the house, clanging its bell furiously.  The motorman of a northbound Sixth avenue car, which was speeding up West Broadway at a swift gait, says he didn't hear either bell or gong.  His car smashed into the truck at the Murray street crossing with great force.

The Sun said the truck was "drawn by two white horses and with the crew of seven men seated high up on the wagon."  Those men were "hurled through the air and landed in all parts of the street," as worded by the Morning Call.  Most of them were unconscious when bystanders rushed in.  At least one perished from his injuries.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

Fire Patrol No. 1 was still at 41 Murray Street as late as 1921; but the narrow proportions of the Victorian structure could not accommodate modern equipment for much longer.   By 1929 the building had filled with industrial tenants, like the Evansville Tool Works, Hanson Bros. Scale Works, the La Pierre Sawyer Handle Co., the Spargo Wire Co. and other related firms.

Change in the Tribeca neighborhood arrived in the 1970's when ground floor, once home to the horse drawn fire wagons, became Rosie O'Grady's Irish restaurant.  In 1982 the upper floors were converted to residential, one apartment per floor.   More recently the ground floor was home to Shore, an oyster bar.

photograph by the author

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Samuel A. Warner's 1857 23 Park Place

 

image via loopnet.com

In 1855 the formerly elegant neighborhood around the homes of Edwin Brutton  Strange and Dr. Valentine Mott, at 23 and 25 Park Place respectively, was becoming increasingly commercialized.  That year Richard D. Lathrop and Charles H. Ludington signed a lease on the properties.  It stipulated that "a good and substantial building...of five stories high beside basement and sub-cellar with marble fronts and iron pillars" would be erected on or before November 1857.  The lease additionally specified that the building would be used "as a dry goods store."

The latter stipulation was not coincidental.  The renters were the principals in the drygoods firm Lathrop, Ludington & Co., then located at 16 Cortlandt Street.  They hired architect Samuel A. Warner, who specialized in mercantile buildings, to design two matching structures that would run through the block to Murray Street.

The nearly identical buildings were completed early in 1857.  As the lease stipulated, Warner had clad the upper stories in marble, above a cast-iron storefront manufactured by Daniel Badger's Architectural Iron Works.  At three-bays wide, 23 Park Place was slightly narrower than its counterpart, but continuous stone intermediate cornices above the third and four floors, and a bracketed terminal cornice unified the buildings, making the difference nearly undetectable.

At first glance, the buildings appear to be a single structure.  23 Park Place is to the right.

Warner's dignified Italianate style design took inspiration from Renaissance period antecedents, particularly at the second and third floors.  The openings of the second floor were clearly influenced by the 16th century Palazzo Farnese in Rome, with their alternating triangular and arched pediments.  The window treatment gradually became less elaborate with each successive floor.

Warner clearly took inspiration from Rome's Palazzo Farnese for his second floor window treatment.  from the collection of the University of Notre Dame

Lathrop, Ludington & Co. moved into 25 Park Place and part of 23--assuredly the lower section.  An advertisement in December 1857 said that a shipment of "new, fresh and desirable goods" had made "their magnificent Warerooms the most attractive resort in town for buyers who have the cash to spend."  The variety of drygoods offered included, "sheetings shirtings, tickings, flannels, De Laines, prints, blankets, black and fancy silks, merinos, alpacas, paramettas, cloths, cassimeres, &c. &c."

The upper floors of 23 Park Place were leased to another dry goods firm, Wm. Lottimer & Co.  Thanks to a sharp-eyed policeman, the company narrowly escaped being burglarized on January 21, 1860.

Evening Post, March 1, 1858 (copyright expired)

The New York Times reported, "Wm. Smith, a carman, and Martin Besby, an oysterman, were detected on Friday night as they were leaving the store of Lathrop, Ludington & Co., No. 23 Park-place, which, it is alleged, they had broken open with the intention of robbing."  Officer Wildey arrested the men, who had two pieces of serge fabric in their possession, the value of which would translate to about $2,250 today.  Smith and Besby were sent to prison.

The near loss paled to a forgery committed against the firm four years later.  According to The New York Times on November 17, 1864, police were searching for the gang that had carried out "one of the most extensive and successful series of forgeries which have ben perpetrated in this country for several years."  The name of Richard D. Lathrop, the firm's senior member, had been signed to a $27,127.50 check--more than $425,000 today.  The newspaper explained, "The fraud was not discovered until some time after the crime was perpetrated."  Authorities feared the extend of the forgeries would reach $300,000.

In the spring of 1867 Lathrop, Ludington & Co. leased 23 Park Place to seed distributor B. K. Bliss & Son.  The firm sold a vast variety of vegetable seeds through the mail, advertising in agricultural periodicals throughout the country.

American Agriculturist, February 1873 (copyright expired)

As a marketing device, in 1869 B. K. Bliss & Son held an exhibition of strawberries in the building.  The following year, on September 24, 1870, The New York Times reported that the firm "announce that the success attending their prize exhibition of strawberries, last Summer, has determined them to give a similar one of grapes, next week, when the sum of $250 will be distributed in prizes."  That exhibition, too, was a resounding success.

On September 28, The New York Times announced, "The spacious store of Messrs. B. K. Bliss & Sons, No. 23 Park-place, was yesterday crowded by grape-growers and connoisseurs, who came to view the splendid display of grapes presented for competition.  There were fully 500 specimens on the tables, and they all presented a fine appearance."

Earlier that year B. K. Bliss & Sons had made an unfortunate business decision.  The previous fall 23-year-old Luther Burbank dug up his newest variety of potato in Lunenburg, Massachusetts.  Decades later, he told a reporter:

As quick as I dug I knew I had a prize.  I wrote to B. K. Bliss & Co...in the spring of 1873.  I sent a sack.  I felt glad that I had a wonderful potato.  The firm replied that they were so sweet and nutty that they feared they must be frozen, and therefore turned them down.

The Burbank Potato would become the most widely grown potato in North America.

B. K. Bliss & Son lost a formidable employee almost simultaneously.  On March 11, 1873 a position-wanted advertisement appeared in the New York Herald that included an impressive resume:

A landscape gardener and rural architect, with a thorough knowledge of floriculture and vegetable growing, wishes an engagement, permanent or otherwise; seven yeas' reference as general foreman on Regent's Park, London; two years assistant to Sir Joseph Paxton on the Sydenham Crystal Palace, at Northwood, England; five years connection with the Department of Parks, New York and Brooklyn.  City References.

Frederick Law Olmstead, Esq.  Address Bliss & Sons, 23 Park place.

After B. K. Bliss & Sons moved out in 1875, the ground floor store was completely remodeled.  On December 26, 1875, an advertisement disguised as a news article in the New York Dispatch touted, "Bro. Benjamin F. Stiles, for the past fourteen years in Nassau street...has opened a new and splendid restaurant at No. 23 Park-place, running through to Murray street.  Here will be found in endless profusion every delicacy and substantial Nature has provided or art combined, as anyone may see and know for himself by just looking in and ordering a meal."

The upper floors saw a distinctly different type of tenant shortly afterward.  In 1879 the Gutta Percha & Rubber Manufacturing Company moved in, and in 1884 the Rand Drill Company, sellers of mining machinery, and the Rendrock Powder Company, makers of blasting equipment, took space in the building.

The American Engineering Register, 1885 (copyright expired)

Sharing the building with its industrial neighbors in 1887 was Horace Partridge & Co.  The commission merchants sold much gentler products--dolls and toys, games, "fancy glassware," albums, decorated chinaware, "magic lanterns," and "an immense assortment of novelties and specialties."

On January 25, 1892 a man from Guttenberg, New Jersey purchased a crate of 30 "Rack-a-Rock" sticks of dynamite from Rendrock Powder Company.  Company employees later told a detective, "He had put the box on his wagon and driven away.  An hour later he returned, and said that he had lost the box of cartridges.  It had mysteriously disappeared from the wagon."  In the wrong hands, the stolen explosives could prove deadly.

At around 1:00 that afternoon, Rudolph Heig, the superintendent of the Newsboys' Lodging House at Chambers and Duane Streets, was entering the building when he noticed a crate just inside the door.  The New York Times reported, "Near the box lay a brick, with which the lid of the box had been knocked open.  The board of the lid had been split and the brick had been broken in the effort to open the box."

Heig carried the box into the light, where he discovered its terrifying contents.  The newspaper said, "The cartridges were neatly packed in wood shavings, and it was probably the packing that prevented the hammering on the box from causing a disastrous explosion."  A detonation would have, indeed, been a calamity.  The article noted, "At the time the box was found there were about 250 people in the building.  Of this number 175 were children in the school and kindergarten."  Police surmised, "On finding out what the contents were the thief must have run away as fast as he could."

Around 1897 Remington & Sherman Co., manufacturers of safes and vaults, opened its showroom in the building.  It would remain well past the turn of the century.

In 1903 the Broadway Savings Institution leased the ground floor for two years while its future home at 17 Park Place was being renovated.  The New-York Tribune reported, "It will move to No. 23 Park Place on August 1."

The upper floors continued to house industrial tenants, including the American Street Lamp & Supply Co., here in 1904, and the Universal Printing & Manufacturing Co.  By 1915 the Banks Law Publishing Co. was in the building.  Among the firm's industry-specific offerings that year were Insurance Law of New York, Principles of the English Law of Contract, and Commentaries on the Law of England.

From 1921 to 1930 The Daily News operated from both buildings.  They were once again separate entities in 1932 when 23 Park Place now had a store on the ground floor, a "private club" on the second, and factory space above.  That configuration lasted until 1945 when the building was converted to storage.

The changes in the neighborhood were reflected in the alteration to 23 Park Place completed in 1966.  The was now an "eating and drinking establishment" with "restrictions on entertainment," on the ground floor; a pool and billiard hall on the second; and storage on the upper floors.  

When the building was offered for sale in October 2005 for $13 million, the realtor suggested its used for "retailing space and loft apartments."  Today there are a total of six apartments above the two-story restaurant space.  A sidewalk shed suggests that the care-worn building is currently receiving some well-needed attention.

uncredited photographs by the author

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