Isaac F. Duckworth's 1865 41 Worth Street

 

Around 1802, a three-story frame house was built at 41 Worth Street between West Broadway and Church Streets.  In the rear yard was a two-story house.  By around 1810, the main building was operated as a boarding house, and in 1821  it became the Eclipse House, a porterhouse (a tavern and restaurant where malt liquor, such as porter, was sold).  

Among the residents in 1857 was Rose Buchett.  On February 13, 1857, the New-York Tribune reported, "At a late hour on Wednesday night a fire broke out in the apartment of Rose Buchett, No. 41 Worth street, but it was extinguished before much damage occurred to the building. The police say that the occupant, while in a state of intoxication, set fire to her bed. The woman was badly burned."

At the time of Rose Buchett's horrific accident, change was again taking place in the Worth Street neighborhood.  Dry goods merchants were encroaching into what today is known as Tribeca, replacing domestic structures with modern loft and store buildings.  In 1862 Phil Laos Mills, a successful dry goods merchant, inherited 41 Worth Street.  Three years later, he partnered with John Gibb to established Mills & Gibb.  Around the same time, Mills demolished the old building at 41 Worth Street and hired architect Isaac F. Duckworth to design a replacement.

Duckworth had only been listed professionally in directories since 1858, and then as a carpenter.  But he would design several striking commercial buildings in the dry goods district, some of which--like 41 Worth Street--with facades cast by Daniel D. Badger's Architectural Iron Works.  For Mills, he designed a five-story store-and-loft building in the Venetian-inspired Italianate style.  

The use of cast iron streamlined the construction process, while allowing Duckworth to embellish the facade with elaborate details.  While the storefront has been brutally altered, it almost assuredly had fluted Corinthian columns.  Blind balustrades ran below the second floor openings, and  quoins with projecting panels ran up the sides.  Above each arcade of windows, the iron was cast to imitate stone blocks.  The intermediate cornices between floors were given rope molding, which was duplicated around the windows and lintels.  Fluted columns, complex keystones (each with a finial), and intricate corbels below each intermediate cornice added to Duckworth's splendid design.

Upon the building's completion, Mills sold it to brothers Samuel and Abraham Wood, whose family would retain ownership until 1954.  Among the first tenants of 41 Worth Street was Frothingham & Co., dry goods commission merchants.  Headed by William Frothingham, the size of Frothingham & Co.'s operation was evidenced on June 29, 1865, when The New York Times reported the firm's sales for the previous year at $1,224.926, or about $22.7 million in 2024.

Sharing the building with Frothingham & Co. in 1866 were Steinberg & Friedberg, importers of "hosiery, gloves, and gentlemen's furnishing goods;" and Thorn & De Camp, auctioneers.  Like other auctioneers in the district, Thorn & De Camp normally liquidated the stock of dry goods firms, like the auction on June 5, 1867 of straw goods "comprising full assortments, in the latest and most desirable shapes, for ladies', misses' and men's wear."  But that was not always the case.  A month earlier, on May 9, Thorn & De Camp had held a "special sale of cigars, wines and liquors."

Occupying space here in 1875 were Thomas P. Remington, Jr. and his partner Charles Westerman.  Remington had established his American Manufactured Goods dry goods business by 1856.  He would come to regret taking Westerman into his firm.  On September 16, 1876, the New York Herald reported that the latter had been arrested.  The article explained that on January 21 the previous year, Westerman had stolen "a $5,000 life assurance policy...valued at $1,300, from Thomas P. Remington, Jr."

Before Elisha Otis's elevators became commonplace, heavy crates of machinery, stock, and other items were hoisted up hatchways--open shafts outfitted with a block and tackle.  The hatchways were dangerous in themselves, often resulting in workers falling to injury or death.  But the hoisting process added to the danger by necessitating at least one employee to position himself below the item being raised.  One such operation ended tragically at 41 Worth Street on November 15, 1878.

With winter nearing, one of the tenants purchased a cast iron stove.  The New York Times reported, "While James Ekin, aged 50, was engaged in hoisting a stove up the hatchway of the premises No. 41 Worth-street, yesterday, the stove slipped from the rope and fell with terrible force on his head, crushing his skull in a frightful manner."  Ekin was taken to the Chambers Street Hospital where he died soon after being admitted.

Working in the building as a porter at the time was Emil J. Deckenbach.  Described by the New York Herald as "a young man of good character and steady habits," he went to Sea Cliff, Long Island, on October 14, 1879 to visit his mother and sister.  According to his sister, he left on the train for Hunter's Point at around 5:00 that afternoon, "taking with him two peach baskets which contained fruit, and about sixty-three cents besides his railroad fare."  Emil would not make it home alive.

The following day, Emil's sister received a note from an undertaker telling her that he was dead and that his body was awaiting burial at the morgue.  According to the New York Daily Graphic, he had been found in an unconscious condition at the 34th Street Ferry.  The New York Herald added, "He was placed in a hand cart and removed to the Twenty-first precinct station house, where it was supposed that he was suffering from the effects of alcoholism.  The odor of his breath, however, did not confirm the suspicion."  He died at the stationhouse.

Emil's sister did some investigating of her own.  When she retrieved the body, the "face was scratched and swollen, as if from a fall.  The nose was cut, and there was a contused wound on the side of the head, besides a discoloration beneath the left eye," she told a reporter.  With police attributing his death to alcoholism and knowing he left her home "in good health and spirts," she went to the 34th Street ferry where she found deckhand Thomas McFarland, who told of finding Emil on the Hunter's Point side of the ferry too feeble to board without assistance.  He was placed in a ladies' cabin, "where he vomited and became unconscious," reported the New York Herald.  

The sister's sleuthing reopened the case.  On October 23, the New York Daily Graphic reported, "Coroner Woltnian said to-day that he would make a thorough and searching investigation in the case of Emil J. Deckenbach.  It is now believed from the bruises found on his body that after alighting from the train at Hunter's Point he was either knocked down for the purpose of robbery or fell from the train."

The Waterloo Woolen Mfg. Co. moved into the building by 1881.  Organized in 1836,  the firm's mills, which were in Waterloo, New York, produced "woolen goods for men's wear; shawls; carriage cloths."

In 1894, Herbert Barton Stevens co-founded the dry goods commission firm of Stevens, Sanford & Hardy, which moved into 41 Worth Street.  Born in Newton, Massachusetts in 1855, Stevens had entered the woolen business at the age of 16.  Typical of the wealthy business owners in the dry goods district, he was a member of the exclusive Union League Club and owned a Newport, Rhode Island estate.

Herbert B. Stevens, Brooklyn Life, July 6, 1895 (copyright expired)

The dry goods commission firm of Schoff, Fairchild & Co., occupied space by 1888.  The New York Times said it "represents some of the largest manufacturers of woolen[s] in the country."  As the Presidential election neared, on August 22, 1888 the newspaper reported that George M. Fairchild, Jr. "is strongly in favor of the re-election of President Cleveland, as are the other members of his firm."

Among those partners was Frederick L. Holmquist, who had been made a member of the firm in 1883.  The Sun said of him, "Mr. Helmquist's reputation has always been excellent."  But he would be the undoing of Schoff, Fairchild & Co.

On April 3, 1891, The Sun reported "Frederick L. Holmquist is no longer a member of the firm of Schoff, Fairchild & Co...A small strip of brass has been tacked up over Holmquist's name on the sign in front of the door, and experts are at work on the books."

A month earlier, bills which the ledgers showed as having been paid were presented as being past due, "and notes given by Holmquist in the firm name were discovered," said the article.  Internal investigation revealed that Holmquist had been "speculating in Wall street."  He turned out to be a poor investor.  The Sun reported, "It was estimated yesterday that Holmquist's losses by speculation were over $50,000."  (The amount would translate to about $1.6 million today.)

Schoff, Fairchild & Co. quickly attempted damage control, saying "Holmquist's speculations would not in any way [financially] embarrass them, and that there would be no prosecution of their ex-partner."  Nevertheless, eleven days later the Evening Herald of Duluth, Minnesota reported that Schoff, Fairchild & Co. had gone under.

A significant tenant moved into 41 Worth Street on May 1, 1902.  The Travers Brothers Company started out as a twine store at 104 Duane Street.  Now, according to Hardware magazine on September 10, 1906, it was "a large distributing and manufacturing concern, with three large plants."

One of the Traverse Brother factories was at 542 West 52nd Street, between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues.  King's Views of New York, 1906 (copyright expired)

In 1911 the H. W. Baker Linen Company took over the entire building.  Hiram Wilson Baker had co-founded the Boyce & Baker company in 1882, and in 1902 bought out his partner's share to establish the current firm.  It manufactured commercial grade linens for hospitals and hotels.

A problem with being affluent and well-known socially in the early years of the 20th century was that one's personal business was considered public.  And so when Baker and his wife Ella separated in 1912, the messy details became fodder for newspaper articles.  On June 15, the New-York Tribune reported that he had obtained a divorce in Reno, Nevada on the grounds of desertion.  The article said, "Owing to his wife's alleged persistent discontent, which, he testified, resulted in the breaking up of the home, they went to boarding.  Later she insisted on going to her mother's, in Brooklyn, and did so."  

Working for the H. W. Baker Linen Company in 1916 was 26-year-old bookkeeper Henry L. Steul, who was married that year.  The cheeriness of his new marriage turned to despair when, on the day he returned to work following his honeymoon, police walked up to his desk and arrested him.  The Bridgeport, Connecticut Evening Farmer reported on December 15, " He was charged with taking a $300 money order two days before his marriage.  According to the police, Steul said he spent the money in presents for his bride and for the honeymoon."

In December 1918, the National Hotel Men's Exposition took place in Madison Square Garden.  The Sun noted that H. W. Baker Linen Company "had one of the largest booths in the Garden."  At the exposition banquet at the Hotel Biltmore on December 20, Hiram Baker "was taken suddenly ill."  The Sun reported two days later, "He went at once to his home at 114th street and Riverside Drive, where he died yesterday morning."  Baker was 56 years old.

Association Men, June 1922 (copyright expired)

The firm continued to operate from 41 Worth Street for more than a decade.  Then, on October 20, 1939, The New York Sun reported, "Marcus Bros., cotton goods converters...have leased the five-story building at 41 Worth street...As soon as present alterations are completed, the lessees will take possession of the structure."

Marcus Bros. remained at 41 Worth Street through 1954, when, after owning the property for nearly nine decades, the Wood family sold it.  The building continued to be home to textile firms until the 1970s, when the Tribeca Renaissance saw artists, galleries and trendy restaurants taking over the former loft buildings.  

By 1975 the upper floors of 41 Worth Street were being used as residences, although the building was not officially converted to four cooperative residences until 1981.  In 2019 a rooftop addition, unseen from the street, added a fifth apartment to the structure.  The building was designated an individual New York City landmark in 2013.

photographs by the author

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Isaac Duckworth's Cast Iron 39 Worth Street

 

Only months apart, architect Isaac F. Duckworth received commissions from James Smith and Philo Laos Mills to design side-by-side, five-story store-and-loft buildings at 39 and 41 Worth Street, respectively.  For both, Duckworth turned to Daniel D. Badger's Architectural Iron Works to cast his facades.

Ground was broken for 39 Worth Street on March 1, 1862 and construction was completed on January 28, 1863.  The Superintendent of Building's Semi-Annual Report to the Board of Aldermen described it as a "first-class storehouse."  Duckworth's commercial take on the Italianate style included Corinthian pilasters between each of the upper floor openings, and prominent intermediate cornices defined each floor.  The gently rounded upper corners of the windows drew on the emerging Second Empire style.  Duckworth crowned the building with a robust cornice composed of a corbel table, paneled fascia, and large and small foliate brackets.

The area was rapidly becoming Manhattan's dry goods district.  Among the early tenants of 39 Worth Street was E. Waitzhelder & Co., "commission merchants and dealers in dry goods and cottons."  The New York Herald called the company "old and reputable," adding "The firm have a cotton factory in Philadelphia which cost them about $100,000."  That figure would translate to about $2.75 million in 2023.

The Financial Panic of 1873 devastated banks and businesses, and E. Waitzhelder & Co. was not an exception.  On November 27, 1875, the New York Herald reported that the firm's failure had "created a great deal of excitement in the Cotton Exchange" the previous day.  

Importantly, the article noted that E. Waitzhelder & Co. "have made an assignment to Abraham Backer."  He was a partner in the cotton commission firm of Backer & Cohen, which was also in 39 Worth Street.  That firm survived the depression and would remain in the building for years.  Backer's personal fortune survived as well.  When the Jersey City Finance Committee secretly sold off large amounts of city bonds in 1880, The New York Times reported "Mr. Backer, a capitalist, at No. 39 Worth-street...took $400,000 of the issue."  The amount would equal about $11.8 million today.

Although freight elevators were being installed in commercial buildings in the last quarter of the 19th century, that was not the case at 39 Worth Street.  Tenants used a "hatchway"--an open shaft outfitted with a pulley system by which crates and bundles were hoisted up and down.  It was a dangerous process which resulted in tragedy in 1882.  

Fourteen-year-old James Sullivan lived on Bayard Street in the impoverished Five Points district.  Like most teen boys of needy families, he dropped out of school to work.  The New York Times reported on January 6 that he "fell through the hatchway of the building No. 39 Worth-street, from the third to the first floor, yesterday, and was killed."

By now, Abraham Backer had established a second firm in the building, Arkwright Mills, A. Backer & Co.  The company's mills in Manayunk, Pennsylvania manufactured "ginghams and checks."  Also here by 1886 were the New York buying office of I. Epstein & Bro., and importers Lipman & Co.  

I. Epstein & Bro. was a Savannah-based firm established in 1854.  The Industries of Savannah described it as "an example of the better class of business houses doing business out of Savannah, and will compare well with any similar concern elsewhere located."

The list of items Lipman & Co. imported was exhausting, including "linen and jute goods, burlaps, sackings, and yarns, Aberdeen, French elastic, pelissier, military, double warp and other clothiers' canvases," according to the New York Stock Exchange Historical Review in 1886.  Established in 1840 in Dundee, Scotland, the firm now had branches in Germany, Ireland, England, Chicago, Minneapolis and New York.

One tenant decidedly not in the dry goods trade in 1886 was George M. Jacocks & Co.  Among the items it marketed was the Rubber Marking Pen, for labeling crates and mail.

The American Stationery, April 15, 1886 (copyright expired)

The Persian and East India Co. occupied the store space in 1888.  That year it advertised "Holiday Presents Extraordinary," including exotic "Rugs, table-cloths, tea-cloths, antique arms, antique shawls, portieres, draperies, benares-ware, armor, tea gowns."  The advertisement said the items were available "at the Bungalow of the Persian and East India Co."

William E. Harrop did business from 39 Worth Street in 1890.  That fall he traveled to Syracuse, New York on business, staying at the Leland Hotel there.  The Leland was described by The New York Times as "the largest hotel in Central New-York."  On October 16, the newspaper began an article saying, "What proved to be the most disastrous fire that has visited Syracuse for many years was discovered in the Leland Hotel at 12:30 o'clock this morning."  The journalist, who was writing the article at 2:00 a.m., said "the fire is still burning fiercely...The hotel is entirely destroyed."

Twenty-five persons perished, and among them was William E. Harrop.  The Morning Telegram explained, "he was coming down from the fourth floor on the fire escape when the rope broke and he fell.  He died at St. Joseph's hospital at 4 o'clock."

By the early 1890s, the massive Carl A. Evertz company operated from at least one floor of 39 Worth Street.  In 1894 it employed 25 men, 11 teenaged boys, 49 women, 45 teen girls, and one "child who cannot read or write English."  The staff worked 59 hours throughout the week and another 9 hours on Saturdays.

Carl A. Evertz was born in Germany in 1856 and came to New York as a boy.  His firm manufactured "sample books, sample cards, and card cases."  Like most successful immigrants, he had not forgotten his roots.  He was for years the president of the Frederick Gluech Quartet Club, was a member of the Arion Singing Society (a German-language singing group), a member of the German-American Municipal League, and president of the German Hospital Society.

The first decade of the 20th century continued to see dry goods firms occupy the building, including Edward Scheitlin Co., dealers in hosiery, underwear and gloves; the Worchester Woolen Mills Company, which manufactured "uniform cloths;"  the dry goods commission merchants Textile Commission Company; and Nathan & Greer.

 

Dry Goods Economist, December 23, 1911 (copyright expired)

The post-World War I years saw Henry C. Kelley Co., dealers in rope and cord; Haslin Mills, which advertised its Spring 1920 line of "clever cotton fabrics for dresses and costumes;" and H. Wertheim, cotton fabrics, in the building.

Wertheim was stopped on the street in September 1924 by a reporter from The Sun.  Each day, the newspaper's "Inquiring Reporter" asked five random persons a question.  Wertheim was asked, "Has prohibition accomplished what its advocates claimed for it?"  His answer left no question as to his stance.  "Why don't the advocates of prohibition, who claimed so much, go out and acknowledge frankly that it was a gigantic mistake and modify the law?" 

Morris and Edward E. Scher took a loft in 1935 for their newly formed Scher Textiles, Inc.  The brothers had been brought to America from Russia by their parents as children.

In 1938 the ground floor store space became home to the Weeping Willow Tea Room.  It was possibly at this time that the the Daniel Badger storefront, which would have had fluted iron columns, was replaced with a masonry front with a vast window.

The building continued to house textile firms for decades.  Slowly, beginning in the third quarter of the 20th century, the Tribeca neighborhood saw change, as artists and shops took over the vintage loft structures.  In 2002, 39 Worth Street was converted to residential above the store space.

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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The 1929 Cone Export Co. Building - 57-59 Worth Street

 

During the second half of the 19th century, the district known today as Tribeca filled with handsome loft and store buildings designed for the dry goods trade.  Faced in marble, cast iron, or sandstone, they almost always featured a cast iron storefront.  A noticeable exception, however, was the six-story building at 57-59 Worth Street, at the northwest corner of Church Street.  Occupied by the Cone Export and Commission Company, its architect had apparently not aspired to commercial beauty.  The utilitarian, brick-faced factory and store might have been described as uninspired.

In 1927 the building at 57-59 Worth Street was prepared for demolition.  from the collection of the New-York Historical Society.

In 1927 the Cone Export Company demolished its old building and hired architect Edward I. Shire to design a modern replacement.  If its predecessor had not been "an ornament to the street," in the vernacular of architectural critics, Shire's new design would correct that.  In an era of Art Deco jazziness, the architect looked to the Italian Renaissance for inspiration.  

As the nine-story building neared completion on June 23, 1928, The Evening Post called it the "latest improvement for the wholesale dry goods district," saying, "It has been designed in the early Florentine Renaissance period style of architecture by Edward I. Shire."   A two-story rusticated base upheld an unadorned, six-story midsection.  Each set of paired openings on the top floor sat within a slightly recessed arch, emphasized by a stone eyebrow.  They, along with the ornamental corbel table that supported the cornice, harkened to 16th century Italy.

The Evening Post noted, "The stories will be unusually high, providing excellent light and ventilation, and the top floor will have a clear height of about twenty-two feet, allowing for a mezzanine story if desired."  The building was opened on February 1, 1929, but even before construction was completed, it had been  nearly fully rented.  The Cone Export Company would occupy the basement through third floors.  Among the tenants were A. S. Haight & Co., which rented the fourth floor; Ely & Walker Dry goods which took the fifth; and Chatham Manufacturing Company, which signed a lease for the sixth.  

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

The Cone Export Company was the selling arm of the Proximity Mfg. Co. of Greensboro, North Carolina.  On October 14, 1920, Mill News explained, "It is through this department that Proximity and White Oak denims are sold all over the world."  The firm was founded by Caesar Cone and operated three cotton mills, textile factories, and print works there.

A. S. Haight & Co. manufactured underwear.  In 1932 the firm hired Rogers Meyer, a 24-year-old graduate of the University of Virginia as a traveling salesman.  Meyer was progressive minded.  At a time when most salesmen took trains to their clients, The New York Sun said he "made frequent trips to the Middle West and North West...using airplanes as a means of transportation whenever possible."  That preference ended tragically when the plane he was on crashed into the San Francisco Bay in February 1937.  The 29-year-old left a widow and 19-month-old baby girl.

Working for the Chatham Manufacturing Company at the time was 27-year-old Curtiss Howard, the firm's assistant advertising manager.  In 1942, following America's entry into World War II, he left his job to join the Coast Guard even though, he explained later, "His only previous seafaring experience had been confined to yachting in Long Island Sound."  He would return to New York a war hero.

On December 14, 1944, the Navy announced that Lt. Howard had been the navigator of the cutter Eastwind off the coast of Greenland.  The vessel located the German warship Externsteine "caught fast in the ice."  After what The New York Sun called "a few salvoes from the Eastwind's guns," the German crew surrendered.  Using the Externsteine's own mines, the American crew blasted the ship free.  

Lt. Curtiss Howard boarded the Externsteine and supervised its 700 mile voyage to Reykjavik.  The New York Sun reported that, according to the Third Naval district headquarters, "he was the first American officer in this war, so far as they knew, who had been placed in command of a captured enemy ship." 

On July 5, 1956, The New York Times announced, "The American Telephone and Telegraph Company has leased the entire building at 59 Worth Street from Cone Mills, Inc., which recently moved to 1440 Broadway."  The firm occupied the property for six years before it was sold to the New York  Law School in 1962.  Renovations completed the following year transformed the former offices to classrooms, a law library, lounges, and other school-related facilities.

The New York Law School was chartered in 1891 by a group of Columbia Law School faculty members.  Within a year, it had became the second largest law school in the country.

Events within the new home of the New York Law School often reflected the changing times and the issues of the day.  On April 11, 1979, Judge Bruce McM. Wright of Criminal Court released Jerome Singleton, charged with attempted murder, without bail.  The New York Times said the decision "has created a furor" and said, "The judge, who is black, has accused the Police Department of racism."

On April 19, The New York Times reported, "Fourteen speakers at a crowded news conference held at Judge Wright's alma mater, the New York Law School, at 57 Worth Street, praised the judge for following the Constitution and only using bail to insure a defendant's presence for trial."

In 1982, the New York Law School implemented an innovative, ten-week course for teenagers.  On April 4, The New York Times reported, "students at Eastern District High School in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn have been studying divorce law, child-custody rights, tenants' rights and abortion in a social studies class called 'Citizen and the Law.'  Attendance is high, and interest keen."

photograph by Jim Henderson

A bizarre incident occurred here in 1986.  Martin Sostre was described by The New York Times as "a national symbol of prisoners' rights in the 1960's and 70's."  During his 20-year prison term, which ended in 1975, he became a Black Muslim and diligently studied law.  While incarcerated, said the newspaper, he "won a series of court battles that established inmates' rights to practice religion, receive uncensored mail and obtain certain minimum conditions in solitary confinement."

In 1984 Sostre was accused of attempted murder when he shot a tenant in the Washington heights building where he worked as assistant manager.  He was on the run for two years before an attorney spotted the 63-year-old activist pouring over legal tomes in the library of the New York Law School at 8:00 on the evening of May 22.  The lawyer quietly notified police, who arrived and arrested Sostre.

Edward I. Shire's handsome Italian commercial palazzo remains essentially unchanged as it nears the century mark.

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