Why Extend Tribeca North Historic District?

Table of Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS ...... 2 INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW ...... 4 PART 1: WHY EXTEND TRIBECA NORTH HISTORIC DISTRICT? ...... 5 PREVIOUS EFFORTS TO EXTEND TRIBECA NORTH ...... 8 PART 2: NORTH TRIBECA HISTORY ...... 12 PART 2: BLOCK AND LOTS MERITING INCLUSION IN TRIBECA NORTH HISTORIC DISTRICT ...... 35 530 CANAL, BLOCK 595, LOT 11 ...... 35 528 CANAL STREET, BLOCK 595, LOT 14 ...... 36 472 WASHINGTON (BLOCK 595, PART OF LOT 14) ...... 37 466 WASHINGTON (BLOCK 595, LOT 16) ...... 38 470 WASHINGTON STREET LOT 22 (NOW DEMOLISHED) ...... 44 288 WEST STREET (BLOCK 595, LOT 6) ...... 47 426 WASHINGTON STREET (NB-438, 1926) ...... 50 142 WATTS STREET (BLOCK 595, LOT 51) NE CORNER OF WASHINGTON, AKA 457 WASHINGTON) .. 51 67 VESTRY, SW CORNER WEST STREET, BLOCK 218, LOT 24 ...... 55 AKA 260-264 WEST STREET ...... 55 438-440 WASHINGTON STREET, AKA 31 DESBROSSES ...... 66 465-469 WASHINGTON, BLOCK 595, LOT 30 ...... 69 459-463 WASHINGTON STREET (BLOCK 595, LOT 7503) ...... 70 472 GREENWICH STREET, BLOCK 595, LOT 44 ...... 72 470 GREENWICH (BUILDING ABSENT FROM NYC BLOCK AND LOT MAPS) ...... 73 136 WATTS STREET, BLOCK 595 LOT 48 AND 130 WATTS, BLOCK 595, LOT 7502 (AKA 468 GREENWICH ...... 76 474 GREENWICH STREET, BLOCK 595, LOT 41 ...... 78 428-430 WASHINGTON STREET (BLOCK 223, LOT 18) ...... 79 449 WASHINGTON STREET, BLOCK 224, LOT 23 ...... 80 432-436 WASHINGTON STREET (NB -16-1936) ...... 82 427-429 WASHINGTON (52 VESTRY), BLOCK, 223, LOT 21 ...... 82 437 WASHINGTON STREET, BLOCK 223, LOT 26 ...... 86 435 WASHINGTON STREET, BLOCK 223, LOT 25 ...... 90 433 WASHINGTON STREET, BLOCK 223, LOT 24 ...... 91 439 WASHINGTON, BLOCK 223, LOT 27 (NB 368 OF 1866) ...... 92 431 WASHINGTON, BLOCK 223, LOT 23 ...... 93 266 WEST STREET (BLOCK 223, LOT 3) ...... 94 270 WEST STREET BLOCK 223, LOT 9 ...... 95 24 DESBROSSES STREET, BLOCK 224, LOT 33 AND 441-5 WASHINGTON STREET, BLOCK 224, LOT 21 ...... 96 268 WEST STREET, BLOCK 223, LOTS 7, 5, AND 3 ...... 97 181 HUDSON (BLOCK 222, 7501) ...... 99 183 HUDSON (BLOCK 222, LOT 7502) ...... 101 305 CANAL, BLOCK 225, LOT 8 ...... 102 Draft

14 DESBROSSES (115-121 WATTS STREET), BLOCK 225, 7502 (NOW LOT 6) ...... 104 12 DESBROSSES (123 WATTS), BLOCK 225, LOT 6 (OLD MAP), NOW LOT 4 ...... 105 123 WATTS STREET (BLOCK 225, LOT 4) ...... 106 TABLE OF IMAGES ...... 107 ANNEX 1: BLOCK AND LOT NUMBERS ...... 110

3 Introduction and Overview

This document contains a proposal to extend the boundaries of Tribeca North Historic District to include the 40 properties described within this report1. Six reasons are given why extension is merited. Community Board #1 has already issued resolutions in favor of expansion as of August 2013. The Historic Districts Council, Councilmember Margaret Chin, Manhattan Borough President Gail Brewer, Downtown Independent Democrats, Landmarks West!, and the Landmarks Conservancy have all pledged support for the expansion of Tribeca’s five historic districts. This is the first of four proposals covering each of Tribeca’s historic districts.

This part of north Tribeca consists of low to mid-rise buildings: mostly two to eight stories tall. They are universally of load-bearing, masonry construction. Most predate 1910. Walking east, one encounters a few taller buildings, mostly the old Trinity warehouses on Hudson Street. Belgian block paves many of the streets. It is sunny on both sides. Multiple layers of history are in evidence. Federal houses from as early as the 1820’s are mixed in with buildings meant for tenements, warehouses and manufacturing. Amid them one finds a scattering of small lots that once housed “wagon-car” diners, stables, wheelright workshops, lumberyards, and blacksmiths. Some of the latter were replaced with car repair shops and gas stations when the Holland Tunnel opened, although all the gas stations have since been demolished.

The area was once marshy and includes some landfill along Washington and West Streets. It serviced the formerly thriving piers and ferry landings (since demolished), Washington Market (demolished) , the former railroads (demolished), the horses that worked here, and then the car. Despite its workaday purposes, people always lived here, even in it’s manufacturing heyday.

Part One of this proposal explains why the properties proposed for historic district designation merit preservation and why it would be good for New York City to keep Tribeca North as an intact neighborhood. Part Two reviews the history of northern Tribeca, summarizing, paraphrasing, and quoting extensively from existing sources and previously published research. It includes many photographs from the New York Public Library (NYPL), the Municipal Archives, and the Museum of the City of New York (MOCNY). Part Three describes the properties that merit inclusion to Tribeca North Historic District. An annex lists the block and lot numbers of these properties. Tribeca Trust sponsored the research on these buildings with help from two student interns from Columbia University’s historic preservation program, Corey Manchenton and Hee Joo Kim.

1 This report does not describe the five individually landmarked properties that would be in this proposed extension of Tribeca North Historic District.

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Part 1: Why Extend Tribeca North Historic District?

1. The buildings have architectural and historical merit: The 1992 boundaries of the then freshly designated Tribeca North Historic District cut this coherent neighborhood into two parts, one protected, the other not (See map on Image 1). In fact, one building was literally cut in half by the boundaries (See Image 2). Yet the unprotected buildings are clearly of the same architectural language and period as those in the protected area. They obviously belong to Tribeca’s historic districts - be the argument aesthetic, degree of integrity, historical significance, period, or architectural interest.

These buildings, taken as a whole, illustrate the emergence of early industrial capitalism, the development of a port industry, as well as the transformation of a horse-drawn world to that of the automobile. They beautifully convey the reality of how backward supply chains to agriculture (in this case via the Washington Market and the port) permitted forward looking agricultural processing as a key step in the early phase of industrialization. Here lard, sugar refining, seed distribution, alcohol distilling, codfish canning, and iron all had their buildings where manufacturing innovations took place. Tribeca, and this part of it in particular, provide a visual reminder of this history, one that exists nowhere else.

2. Preserving the Context Preserves the Neighborhood: Preservationists have learned the hard way what a mistake it is to draw overly narrow historic district boundaries. But now we have an opportunity to rectify an oversight as well as to render justice to a neighborhood. We can keep Tribeca North whole rather than splitting it in half as the 1994 boundaries did.

In public testimony presented in 1992, the architect Robert Stern gave a prescient, but then minority opinion, of the need to preserve a neighborhood’s context. He was pleading the case for Tribeca. He wrote:

“Is broadly defined area designation preferable to scattered individual designation? In the case of Tribeca the answer is clearly yes… the total is far more than the sum of its parts. Even the most masterful urban buildings are not isolated icons, but part and parcel of a larger matrix within they must be seen and evaluated. While the protection of individual significant buildings in Tribeca is important, it is only with the context of scores of less distinctive but nonetheless skillfully conceived and executed “everyday masterpieces” that they collectively present a powerful reflection of New York’s mercantile and industrial past.”

Stern may have been an iconoclast back in 1992, but his thinking is far more widespread now. It is time to apply this more modern approach to preservation to the case of North Tribeca

5 3. The current threat of demolition is high: Several buildings of historic significance have already been lost. Even an entire block has been destroyed: Block 223 where the “Truffles” building now stands is the case in point., as is the building in the photo below.

Image 1: 460 Washington Street has very recently been demolished. William Boring designed it. He also did the Immigration Hall at Ellis Island.

4. Protect the economic value of the existing historic district: We argue that the increasingly rare, load-bearing, masonry character of Tribeca North’s historic district merits extension outward, rather than being beaten back and overwhelmed by glass buildings intruding at every boundary. The anti- contextual new construction taking place risks overwhelming the historic fabric. This would amount to a “takings” of non-traded but nonetheless real, intergenerational economic value. The fact that this value happens to be in in the public domain rather than in private hands should not make it any less important or sizeable. This value was constituted by the formation of the adjacent historic district and needs protection from private seizure.

If there is not an extension, the designation of Tribeca North Historic District in 1994 risks having been a pointless, short-term exercise in preserving isolated buildings in a sea of non-contextual architecture.

5. The patrimony represented is rare: This is the last remaining stretch of the warehouse district that serviced both Washington Market and the port. The market, the piers, the ferries, the streetcars, and the railroads have all literally vanished, as has Washington Street itself south of Hubert Street. Only four historic buildings remain on the waterfront in lower Manhattan. They are part of this request. Moreover, the area north of Canal Street has been rezoned at the request of Trinity Real Estate and is soon to disappear under a welter of

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glass high-rises. If we do not choose to save this part of Washington and West Street, we face an irreversible loss of New York’s historic patrimony.

6. The proposal allows for LPC-regulated development of sites that are non- contributory: There are some property lots with non-contributory buildings in this proposal. These lots should be developed such that the final designs fit the context of Tribeca North Historic District.

We realize that this proposal might generate opposition from the real estate development community. The Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) and its members have been vociferous (and economically incorrect) in their opposition to historic districts. We understand that they are more powerful than Tribeca residents and that their voice is louder. They will likely argue that some of the former garages and blacksmith shops are too small for any type of landmarking. They will claim “takings” of their right to build glass towers next to and within a historic district.

We respond that what is at stake is the total historic character of a neighborhood and the long-term patrimony of New York. The current boundaries do not protect our patrimony. There are just too many borders. The sense of place would be destroyed if Tribeca North continues to be demolished and replaced with glass towers. Such takings of non-traded historic and cultural values now in the public domain undermine the purpose of the original designation of the Tribeca North Historic District and the intent of the Landmarks Law.2

Last, a few lots involve those owned by Trinity Real Estate. Trinity may well claim there is no need for landmark protection. They will claim they that they are good caretakers. We remind Tribecans to think twice on that argument. Historically, Trinity has not been a friend to the historic fabric of our city. Note for example in the accompanying photo what Trinity has recently done to a fine warehouse on the north side of Canal at Hudson. Trinity also rezoned Hudson Square in 2014 to suit its profit- maximizing goals, not those of the neighborhood. Do not forget that Trinity demolished the great St. John’s Chapel over widespread city protest, giving birth to a preservation movement in New York City3. It also sold off one of the great urban parks of the world to Vanderbilt for a freight yard.

We also remind the reader that during hearings on the Hudson Square rezoning, Trinity publicly bragged that they paid $25 million dollars to the city in property

2 See for example the discussion of the public trust doctrine in Mary Wood’s recent book on environmental law, Nature’s Trust (Cambridge University Press, 2014). 3 Randall Mason, “The Preservation and Destruction of St. John’s Chapel” in The Once and Future New York: Historic Preservation and the Modern City (University of Minnesota Press, 2006).

7 taxes. We would like the authorities to compare that figure with the amount residents of Tribeca’s historic districts paid each year to the city: $69 million.

Last, we wholeheartedly support new construction on lots deemed “non-contributing” to the historic district. However, new construction on such sites should be tightly regulated by the Landmarks Preservation Commission. The purpose of such regulation should be to give rise to highly contextual, load-bearing masonry designs that fit the sense of place and low-rise character of historic northern Tribeca. New design should honor, celebrate and give pride of place to the surrounding historic district and not try to contrast with it or compete with it.

Previous Efforts to Extend Tribeca North

When Tribeca North was first considered for historic district designation in the late 1980’s, there was opposition from a few influential properties owners, one of whom was a known mob racketeer. People were afraid. Moreover, residents were outgunned. Important members of the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) wanted to create what was called “a wall” of new tower buildings along West Street in Tribeca North. In the late 1980’s it seemed impossible for a small community in Tribeca - however meritorious their case - to beat such Goliaths.

The community tried anyway, led by the Hal Bromm and Carole DeSaram of the former Tribeca Community Association. They finally persuaded the Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1992 to stand up - and bravely so - against powerful REBNY interests. The Fleming Warehouse and a cluster of federal row houses on Canal Street were declared individual landmarks. A small historic district was designated. The City Planning Commission later made a very modest zoning change to allow for residential use in a former manufacturing area (Tribeca is now 99% residential). Yet despite the use change in the zoning and the Landmarks Preservation Commission’s courage back then, deeply regrettable compromises were made. Nearly half of Tribeca North was left out of the “new” Tribeca North Historic District. Several blocks, and one (still-standing) building were literally cut in half by the final boundaries. Tower zoning was tragically permitted for West Street to suit the interests of a tiny minority of real estate investors.

At first, it seemed likely that such compromises and omissions might not matter. The economic recession of 1993-4 made developers slow to move. In 1996 important members of the Ponte family (one of the largest property owners in the area) pleaded guilty to working with the mafia and went to jail. Moreover, the real estate boom that followed the 9/11 recovery in the rest of Tribeca appeared to bypass Tribeca north. Perhaps “responsible” development might miraculously occur.

But that was just an idealistic illusion, shattered with the demolition of an entire block bounded by Washington, West, Watts, and Desbrosses Street. Appalled neighbors

8 Draft watched the emergence of an expensive, anti-contextual rental condo dubbed “Truffles.” A similar building went up at the site of a former gas station at Canal and Watts Streets.

Nobody was against development, but it mattered what kind of buildings went up. It was also important to recycle the great historic fabric that was there. These views were ignored. A 2006 resident-driven quest to rethink the boundaries of the historic district was perfunctorily denied without discussion.

Then, in 2014, Trinity’s real estate company cake-walked through a public hearing to rezone a similar area just north of Canal and Washington Street. Valid protests of preservation groups and neighbors were ignored. Bloomberg was mayor. There was nothing to do but wait.

Image 2: This humble garage building on Vestry Street was cut in half by the 1993 historic district boundaries. The half to the left of the flagpole was out, the half to the right of the flagpole was in. Many such buildings were made part of other historic districts in Lower Manhattan.

But we cannot wait any longer to protect what is left of Tribeca North. The situation is just too dire. REBNY publishes policy papers and editorials attacking historic districts. Their nonsensical arguments appear to have gained traction in our City Council. Residents within the small, currently designated historic district of Tribeca North find themselves living in a Berlin Wall situation. On the historic district side of the wall are great load-bearing, low-rise masonry buildings. But on the other side, over-scaled glass curtain walls replace equally historic buildings at an alarming pace. The sense of place is under attack. There seems no escape, given the way the original boundaries were drawn.

9 Great Atlantic and Pacific Company warehouse, a building he intends to tear down rather than recycle. The handsome building at 460 Washington, designed by the same architect of Ellis Island’s Immigration Hall, was demolished seemingly overnight. And that nemesis of historic Tribeca, Related Properties, has gobbled up properties in North Tribeca on Block 223, determined to build the infamous glass wall on West Street. Remember that Related holds the honor of inadvertently launching Tribeca’s preservation movement back when they built an anti-contextual luxury rental tower at 105 Duane Street. They recently backed down (temporarily) in an attempt to deal themselves the buildings of the Borough of Manhattan Community College in Tribeca and redevelop them into glass towers.

The upshot is that the half of Tribeca North not in the historic district risks becoming a de- facto extension of the newly rezoned Hudson Square office district to the north and high-rise Battery Park city to the south. This means we must act, all of us. The Landmarks Preservation Commission must once again find the courage to stand up against the bullying of REBNY and do the right thing. We who live in Tribeca need to do the same. It matters not if you live on Warren or Cortland Alley. We are all in the same boat: Tribeca East, West, and South Historic Districts all have similar meritorious claims for extending their respective boundaries. We need each other to protect our neighborhood.

Our City Councilmember, Margaret Chin, supports our proposal. She asks that it be done in phases. This is Phase One: A Proposal to Extend the Boundaries of Tribeca North Historic District.

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Image 3: Pink boundaries indicates the proposed expansion for Tribeca North. The area outlined in blue indicates the current boundaries of Tribeca North Historic District.

11 Part 2: North Tribeca History 4

What is now northern Tribeca was farmland owned by Trinity Church and leased by Leonard Lispenard. The Lispenard farmhouse was on Hudson Street, probably located in what is now roadbed at the southern part of the intersection of Hudson with Desbrosses Street.

As the city grew, Trinity developed some lots into rental housing (much of it would become “slum” housing in the late 1800’s and the object of great journalistic consternation in the New York Times). Some of it was sold off to individual homeowners in the early 1800’s. Houses from this period can still be seen at 462 and 462 Washington Street. There is also an ensemble of these early homes (individually landmarked) on the south side of Canal Street between Washington and Greenwich Streets.

Image 4: Map showing outlines of Lispenard Farm and land leases, overlaid with grid of city streets (NYPL).

4 These pages on Tribeca’s history summarize, paraphrase, and quote from Andrew Dolkart’s Texture of Tribeca and the NYLPC’s Tribeca North Historic District Designation Report of 1993 and designation reports for the 408 Greenwich, 502-508 Canal Street and the Fleming Warehouse at Watts and Washington Streets. We have supplemented this information in Part Two with our own research on individual buildings and lots.

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Image 5: NYPL Map of Manhattan, late 1700's

Greenwich Street was initially about seventy feet inland from the high-water mark of the Hudson River. As Trinity developed the area, it ceded land for the emerging street grid to the City (See Image 4).

Image 6: 1804 map of northern Tribeca. Note that Washington Street is not built up yet (NYPL).

Some of the land was reserved for public use. Trinity built St. John’s Chapel in 1803 with a large gated park in front of it. The park was initially known as Hudson Square but was later referred to as St. John’s Park.

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Image 7: St. John's Park in winter before the railroad terminus

Trinity Church sold the park to Cornelius Vanderbilt for a freight yard and railroad terminal. The terminal was torn down in 1936 and is now the present day site of the Holland Tunnel exit rotary.

There was another church at Laight and Varick and yet another at Vestry Street, just each of Greenwich. A primary school was built at 461 Greenwich but was moved to 29-33 Vestry Street in 1865.

Open space was retained at Canal and West Street in 1833. The Parks Department summarized the history of that park as follows: “The site was established in 1833, and was operated as the Clinton County Market. After nearly 30 years, the public market was torn down and, in 1871, replaced with a M. A. Kellogg & I. A. Pilat landscape design which was a mere fenced commons with no public entrance. The pavement surrounding the park was used for the City's Flower Market. In 1888, a Calvert Vaux & Samuel Parsons, Jr. [landscape design] replaced the Pilat design, inaugurating the Small Parks Act, which enabled the City to renovate and open to the

15 public many of the City's smaller parks which were previously locked and inaccessible to the public.”

Image 8: New version of Canal Park as of 1893. From Scribner’s magazine of 1893.

Image 9: Municipal Archives photo of Canal Park, possibly around 1893 when it was newly completed, replacing an earlier park on the same site.

The city encouraged local landowners on the waterfront to fill land along the low- water mark, eventually to 400 feet beyond, thus allowing for the emergence of wharves along West Streets. In exchange, the property owner could retain the

16 Draft revenue from pier operations. Hugh Gaines, James Donaldson, John Astor, Henry Wyckoff, and Oliver Field were property owners along the river who took advantage of this arrangement. The rapid opening of West Street occurred as water lot proprietors developed their grants; by 1828 it extended to Greenwich Village. West Street achieved its 250 foot wide form after the city’s adoption in 1871 of the McClellan Plan for the construction of a granite-faced bulkhead wall around lower Manhattan. This allowed for the widening of the marginal streets.

A public slip on the river was developed in 1819 between Hubert and Vestry Streets.

Image 10: View of St. John's Chapel from an approaching ferry (NYPL)

But New York was growing as a port, such that by the 1830’s, there was a pier extending into the river from every cross street between Vesey and King Streets. In the 1860’s Pier 39 at Vestry and Pier 40 at Watts extended 560 feet into the river. In 1864 the Desbrosses Street ferry to Jersey City initiated service and in 1865 the Grand Street Ferry railroad line from the East River was extended to the pier, thus creating a network of passenger and streetcar service meeting at the piers.

Image 11: Desbrosses Street Ferry 1900 (?), NYPL

Image 12: Desbrosses Street Ferry, circa 1910 (Municipal Archives).

The Erie Railroad delivered California fruit to the foot of Chambers Street. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad brought vegetables to the Jay Street pier. At Franklin Street there was an early Fruit Exchange which traded nearly all the fruit arriving the city, including the fruit off-loaded by the Old Dominon steamship line between North Moore and Beach Streets. The New York Central and Hudson River Railroad also delivered commodities to the piers at Desbrosses and Watts Streets. The Pennsylvania

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Railroad Pier was established at Hubert and Desbrosses Streets. Train cars were ferried over from New Jersey by boat.

Image 13: Sketch of the elevated trains along Greenwich, showing horse-pulled omnibuses.

Middle and working class families lived in 3-4 story federal style homes. As the area became more commercial, the first floor was often turned into a workshop or store of some kind. Other factors chased away middle class and wealthy homeowners. For example, the port was becoming more chaotic and some piers were used for waste dumping. The city built elevated trains along Greenwich in 1870. St. John’s Park was replaced with a railroad terminal. Families began to move northward, but not in a single rapid exodus (some quite wealthy homeowners stuck it out their entire lives, as did one sugar factory owner who refused to budge from his house on Chambers Street until he died). The buildings these people had occupied were converted into tenement housing for workers or given over to commercial use. In the process, many were enlarged by squaring off the top floor or incrementally replaced in the 1850’s for factories and warehouses. Some lots were used as smiths, stables, freight repair and later, truck and automobile maintenance.

In the 1850’s the area was morphing into a mixed-use neighborhood with many federal houses cheek by jowl to larger masonry warehouses, factories, and even the

19 occasional purpose-built tenement building. The waterfront was becoming chaotically busy, and even noxious in some places, as two of the piers were used as refuse and manure dumps.

Washington Market, at the present site of the Freedom tower at Barclay’s and West Street, was the world’s largest food market and the epicenter of an immense international agricultural supply chain. Its effect radiated out to what is now north Tribeca. For example, the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company had its start opposite the market. They would become the A& P Company and they build their first NY was at Vestry and West Street.

There were other open-air markets as well, on Duane Street, Franklin Street (fruit), and at Canal and West Streets (flowers), but these faded with time as the Washington Market grew in size and scope.

Image 14: NYPL Map of Northern Tribeca, showing built out grid and Hudson Square, but slips north of "North Battery" not yet in place circa 1815?

The food shipping, storage, processing, and transportation businesses soon were joined by a great variety of manufacturing industries as New York entered a period of rapid industrialization after the Civil War. Many buildings were built with manufacturing in mind. North Tribeca was also well situated between the markets, the rail and the river transport networks, so warehousing of commodities became one of the dominant businesses from 1890 until the era of urban renewal in the 1960’s.

There were manufacturers of sugar, paper, lard, whiskey, and soap, and at least one ironworks. The transport nexus made it such that representatives of manufacturing companies around the world wanted to have offices and showrooms here. There was also a wide collection of service businesses relate to food processing, shipping,

20 Draft transportation and good number of wheelwrights, stables, lumberyards, smiths which serviced the horses and later served trucks.

Image 15: Children in an old federal-style house on Laight, here turned into tenements, NE corner of Laight and Hudson, circa 1920 (NYPL). This block had once faced St. John’s Park and had been home to fashionable row houses and even a “School for Ladies”. About 800 people still lived in north Tribeca at the time of the 1890 police census.

Image 16: late 19th Century horse-drawn bustle on West Street, looking north from Franklin (NYPL)

A more profound transformation of the area took place in the 1910’s when many of the remnant federal houses were torn down to make way for larger manufacturing

22 Draft and warehouse buildings.5 The West Side Elevated Highway construction began work in 1931, further modifying the area. The highway was a project advocated by downtown business interest groups. Work continued until 1951 when the segment south of Chambers Street was completed. The elevated highway was dismantled between 1973 and 1985.

Vanderbilt’s St. John’s Freight Depot was closed in 1934 and torn down in 1936. The Holland Tunnel opened in 1927, cementing a move to trucking as the dominant force in commodity transportation, but horses were seen in the area for at least another decade. Several of the corner lots and former blacksmith sites became gas stations and automobile repair garages. In the mid-1950’s the piers entered a period of a slow decline as the Port Authority opened a container facility in New Jersey. The biggest blow to the area come through urban renewal. The Washington Street Urban renewal plan, debated and discussed for some twenty years among powerful business interests and real estate companies, finally came to fruition in 1964. Block and after block, from Dey to Hubert street was emptied out by eminient domain and incrementally demolished. Tribeca North then entered a period of economic uncertainty that was only relieved by its emergence as a center of artistic creativity in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s as artists moved in, attracted by cheap rents in former warehouses and manufacturing buildings.

Image 17: Detail of the Hudson Rail Terminal and statue of Vanderbilt (demolished to make way for the Holland Tunnel rotary).

5 “Quant Types of Early New York Days Rapidly Passing Away in Old Greenwich: Scores of Fireproof Lofts Costing Millions of Dollars All the Way from Duane to Christopher Street Show the Force of Industrial Invasion,” New York Times, December 25, 1910.

Image 18: Vacated buildings from the Washington Street Urban Renewal area after eminent domain removed occupants, circa 1965.

By the 1980’s a community of residents had sufficiently established themselves that preservation became a local cause. In 1993, following a nearly ten-year period of community agitation, a segment of Tribeca North was designated as a historic district. Resistance of rentier property owners along the waterfront inhibited the designation

24 Draft process, hence the boundaries of the current district are somewhat arbitrary and do not serve to protect the sense of place of the area.

Wholesale rezoning in 2014 of Hudson Square north of Canal at the demand of Trinity Real Estate, implies that all that is left of this once great manufacturing and warehouse district are the buildings between Canal and Hubert Street, from West to Hudson, with gaping holes on West Street where developers have made inroads with buildings that are both out of scale and ignore the local context and history. Photos of these various periods of neighborhood history are on the following pages.

After the photo section, twenty-five buildings are described that merit inclusion in Tribeca North Historic District.

Image 19: Bromley Block/Lot Property Map, circa 1910

Image 20: In 1930, the city was proud of its capacity to maintain Belgian block, here at Canal Street.

Image 21: Freight Station at Desbrosses and West Streets

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Image 22: Early horse-drawn bus on West Street along the way to a ferry landing.

Image 23: Laight Street family working from home, photo by Lewis Hines (NYPL).

Image 24: Early Bromley map of Tribeca North, south of Watts, showing mahogany storage lots, North River Foundry, lumberyard, and public school.

Image 25: Early Bromley map of the area, north of Watts

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Image 26: 1931 Municipal Archives image showing a car accident at Canal and West, looking south. The Collins hotel has been demolished at the corner of Canal and West (the empty lot below the water tower), but 530, 528, and 526 Canal are visible, two of which are still standing in 2014.

Image 27: Hudson Railroad car going north on Hudson Street around 1910 (NYPL)

Image 28: NYPL image of children playing on West Street in 1918, possibly on a Sunday due to the absence of traffic. Note the Streetcar tracks. The photographer is standing roughly in the current middle of West Street at the intersection of Watts. The trees of Canal Park are just visible to the north.

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Image 29: School at 461 Greenwich Street (demolished). Note shadow on wall.

Image 30: Laight Street residents, 1910's. Note the early federal house that most likely underwent a typical modification: the upper story was possibly squared off to make more space. The warehouse to the left is still standing.

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Image 31: 489 Washington Street (west side of Washington just a few steps north of Canal. This blacksmith shop was soon edged out by the car (seen at the right of the photo)

Image 32: WW 2 Image of the Lower West Side in its prime, prior to urban renewal, courtesy Library of Congress

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Part 2: Block and Lots Meriting Inclusion in Tribeca North Historic District

530 Canal, Block 595, Lot 11

In 1890, M. S. Herrman put up two six-story buildings on this site. They were of tan brick with cast iron elements on the ground floor. Franklin Baylies, one of the more prolific architects in Tribeca North, designed them both. The building closer to West Street replace what had been the Collins Hotel. The Baylies building was torn down and replaced with a gas station shortly after the construction of the Holland Tunnel. The gas station was there on the neighboring for some thirty years but is now gone. An over-scaled modernist glass and steel apartment building arises in its place, as of May 2014. The current co-op owners restored the roof cornice on this remaining mid- block building at 530 Canal in 2008. The ground floor bays remains covered over with an unfortunate brick that does not match the original, although it appears as if the original cast iron columns and façade elements still exist underneath the brick. Restoration would be straightforward. A cornice over the ground floor, visible in 1900 (?) NYPL photo is gone. The fenestration patterns resemble many other buildings in Tribeca North and West historic districts. In the 1920’s this building housed the William G. Willman Paper Company.

Image 33: 530 Canal Street, Block 595/Lot 11, see also image 27

528 Canal Street, Block 595, Lot 14

In 1892, Franklin Baylies put up a two-story brick stable on this lot for M.S. Hermann, the owner of the adjoining building at 530 Canal. By 1903, the stable had been enlarged to the current 4-stories, owned briefly by Elizabeth Wilcox (likely a descendant of the owners of the Wilcox Lard Refining Company that operated up and down Washington and Greenwich Streets). It was eventually sold to Henry Leerburger. In the 1920’s it was a warehouse for the Dyal Produce Company. In the Great Depression, the building ended up in the hands a packing-case business owned by Nicholas Voskan. In the 1960’s a moving company leased the space. Unlike the neighboring building, the ground floor has not been altered. The loading docks and access stairs are visible in a photo from the early 1900’s.

Image 34: 528 Canal Street, Block 595/Lot 14

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472 Washington (Block 595, part of Lot 14)

472 Washington, at the corner of Canal Street, is a very small parking lot now (no photo). As the building shadow seen on a NYPL photo from around 1900 shows, there had been a federal three-story house at that location. It was used as a harness store. That building has since been demolished. Newspaper evidence suggests a moveable diner occupied the small empty lot for some time.

This lot merits inclusion so that future development on the site can be regulated such that it ends up contextual to the historic district around it.

Image 35: 472 Washington Street circa 1900 (NYPL).

466 Washington (Block 595, Lot 16)

In 1885, the estate of Robert Gaston hired the Thomas R. Jackson, an architect whose fine work is found elsewhere in Tribeca’s historic districts. Jackson made a large number of design modifications to an existing 8-story building at this site, ostensibly to connect or repair a wall between this building and the building directly behind it on West Street (288 West, built in the same style). It was to be used as storage for a soap factory, one owned by Henry Leerburger who came to own many buildings in Tribeca and throughout Manhattan.

However, a fire a few blocks south on Washington Street destroyed the premises of the Holbrooke Soap Manufacturing Company. Holbrooke then took a lease here at 466 Washington and restarted its operations. Substantial modifications took place in 1896 and 1910 (interior work, fire-escapes, and finally an elevator). These modifications resulted removing the original rounded Romanesque windows of the middle section of the building and replacing them with rectangular windows. The changes are not recent, as a NYPL photo from about 1910 indicates. Nonetheless, it remains a handsome, austere building and a fascinating contrast to Jackson’s most famous Tribeca building, the Mercantile Exchange on Harrison Street.

Image 36: Letterhead for Holbrook Soaps, new location at 466 Washington, probably based on the photo below.

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Image 37: The original Holbrook Soap Co, on Washington and Vestry in 1850, prior to fire.

Image 38: Photo of the fire at the Old Holbrook Company on Washington and Vestry Streets.

Image 39: Photo of 466 Washington Street, probably taken in 1890. It was taken prior to modifications made in 1896 and 1910. Note the federal houses to the left (demolished).

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Image 40: Photo of 466 Washington from the late 1920's (NYPL). The owner made the middle windows square and moved the fire escape to the left. The shadow of the older federal house on the right is still visible. Catch a glimpse of the 1922 structure at 460 Washington Street to the far right. Note the sausage casings painted sign on the upper right.

Image 41: 466 Washington Street today.

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Image 42: Brickwork and structural stars beautifully visible on the north face of 466 Washington Street.

Image 43: Current detail of the handsome roofline of 466 Washington Street.

470 Washington Street Lot 22 (now demolished)

Image 44: 460 Washington Street (now demolished). The low buildings shown here on the two lots southward from 466 Washington (all the way to the corner of Watts Street) have recently been demolished. The site was originally occupied by federal row houses, two of which can be seen in Figure 4 above.

The charming building at Washington Street was, amazingly enough, designed by William Boring for Union Drawn Steel in 1905 (NB-187). Union Drawn Steel was a Pennsylvania company that made steel bars. This was their New York office and warehouse.

Boring is one of the most famous architects of New York for his design of the Immigration Station at Ellis Island. Wikipedia notes “William Alciphron Boring (1859– 1937) was an American architect noted for co-designing the Immigration Station at Ellis Island in New York harbor. Boring studied first at the University of Illinois, then spent an additional year (1885) as a student at Columbia University. From 1887 to 1890 Boring studied architecture at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris along with his friend Edward Lippincott Tilton. Boring and Tilton returned to New York in 1890 to

44 Draft work in the office of McKim, Mead, and White. In 1891 Boring and Tilton left McKim, Mead, and White to form their own architectural partnership. Among their notable works were the Casino in Belle Haven, Connecticut (1891) and the Hotel Colorado in the resort town of Glenwood Springs, Colorado (1891). The partnership's work culminated in the 1897 design for the new federal Immigration Station at Ellis Island. This work was honored with a gold medal for Architecture at the Exposition Universelle, Paris (1900); a gold medal at the Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo (1901); and a silver medal at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis (1904). The partnership of Boring & Tilton ended in 1904. The men started working independently of one another but continued to share offices and equipment until 1915. In 1913, Boring was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member. In 1916, Boring joined the faculty of the Columbia School of Architecture, where he eventually became Director in 1919 and Dean from 1931 to 1932.”

Image 45: Letter from Egypt written to the Union Drawn Steel Co at 460 Washington Street.

Image 46: 460 Washington seen with the freight yard just south (now demolished).

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288 West Street (Block 595, lot 6)

Image 47: 288 West Street, still standing.

Image 48: Spectacular loading bay at 288 West Street.

This handsome Romanesque building was built in 1890 (NB 517-92) and designed by the architect Franklin Baylies (ubiquitous around what is now Tribeca). It was headquarters of the sardine canning company of Julius Wolff and Herman Ressing. Wolff and Ressing pioneered the canned fish business for thirty years in New York from their office at 44 Hudson Street (see The Canning Clan: A Pageant of Pioneering Americans, 1937 by Earl Chapin May). In 1912, Wolff and Ressing sold the building to The Lansing Wheelbarrow company of Lansing, Michigan. Lansing used it as its New York warehouse and offices. In 1925, the New York Times reports a large warehouse company, the Ficke Warehouses, owned the building. It passed through the hands of Consolidated Terminal Warehouse Company as well. In 1963, it was an office furniture warehouse owned by the Umberto Brothers (whose painted sign can still be seen on the south side of the building). In 1981 it was converted to co-op apartments with 14 units. The similarities to the Jackson-designed building at its rear (466 Washington) strongly suggest that Jackson also designed this warehouse.

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Image 49: Proud letterhead of the Lansing Company, showing a drawing of 288 West Street

Image 50: Demolished building at NW corner Watts and West Street. Note sign for the Lansing Company on the still-standing 288 West Street.

49 426 Washington Street (NB-438, 1926)

Image 51: 426 Washington Street

This two-story house was built in 1926 as an office and residence for Siemund Marine Electrical Welding company, a two-person firm. They had decided to relocate here from offices at 46 Broadway. A four-story loft building had been on the site, but an explosion destroyed the upper floors in 1922 and it was torn town.

Anthony Cipolla who ran an Italian Products Import Company eventually occupied this building at 426 Washington Street.

Charles Winkelman was the architect. Winkelman had been elected to the board of the Brooklyn chapter of the American Institute of Architects in 1915. He designed 33-36 Washington Square West, 64 Washington Place, and the charming (noted in many guidebooks and in the AIA guide) transformed carriage house of 11 East 11th Street. Tragically, this building is now owned by Related Properties who gives every sign of wanting to tear it down. Fencing was erected in May of 2014 and the building will likely be demolished if it is not put into Tribeca North Historic District to which it clearly contributes.

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142 Watts Street (Block 595, Lot 51) NE corner of Washington, aka 457 Washington)

Image 52: 142 Watts Street

This five-story brick building with charming terra-cotta decorative elements (see [photos below) was built in 1886 at the cost of $12,000 by Minerva J. Murray. Pierce and Dockstader were listed as the architects in the Real Estate Record and Guide of March 27, 1886. It was used as a tenement building for some time, and converted to commercial use in the 1920’s. It returned to residential use in the 1980’s. The ground floor served as a diner in the 1940’s. The owner back then was Charles Duross and

51 Sons (a real estate investment firm). They leased the ground floor to John Wagner who ran a luncheonette.

Pierce and Dockstader were based in Elmira, N.Y. as of 1883, but practiced widely in the region. Dockstader left the partnership in 1890 and was succeeded by Hiram Bickford. Pierce was the senior partner. They designed the highly regarded First Baptist Church of Watkins Glen, the Elmira Town Hall, and most of the notable buildings of Elmira and Corning, NY. They were frequently published in the architectural journals of their time. Many of their buildings are on the National Register of Historic Places.

Image 53: Detail 142 Watts Street

Image 54: Terra cotta elements at 142 Watts Street are likely from the New York Terra Cotta Company on the East Rive in Long Island City. The Company notes the architect of this building as a client.

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Image 56: New York Architectural Terra Cotta

Image 55: 142 Watts from Washington Street

Image 57: 142 Watts Street in the 1940's. Photo from the NYPL.

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67 Vestry, SW corner West Street, Block 218, Lot 24 aka 260-264 West Street

This is the first, large purpose-built warehouse of the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company in NYC, an iconic company already known in 1897 as the “A&P.” The company was founded at 31 Vesey Street, at the epicenter of what was once the world’s largest food market. Lesser and later A & P Warehouses such as the one at 150 Bay Street in Jersey City are National Landmarks. This one at 67 Vestry should be protected as well. There is no other trace of the A&P story in lower Manhattan.

Both its architects – Frederick Dinkelberg (of the original building in 1897) and Frank Helmle (of the two-story addition in 1910), were notable, highly regarded architects of landmarked buildings across the country and in New York City. The two-story addition itself reflects innovations in engineering with cement by the engineer who partnered with Helmle, Phillip Arthur Faribault.

The site along the river is part of the story, illustrating transportation linkages by rail and river from around the country to Washington Market. Only four great warehouses from the 1890’s remain along the waterfront in Tribeca North illustrating this system. This is one of them.

The building was successfully adapted to residential use and became in the 1970’s one of the keystone buildings of Tribeca’s revival as a center of artistic production in NYC, housing homes and studios for internationally famous creators such as Marisol, Andy Warhol, Jack Beal, Sondra Freckleton, John Chamberlain, Wim Wenders and Robert Wilson. It even nurtured into existence the innovative Dia Arts Foundation.

Image 58: 67 Vestry as a brand new building in 1897.

Image 59: Detail of 67 Vestry's thick walls.

The papers in the block and lot file at the Municipal Archives indicate that the original 7-story building was purpose-built as a “tea and coffee” warehouse for the Great Atlantic Tea and Pacific Company in 1896 (Plan #2069 of 1985 and NOB-125-1897). John Kehoe of 335 East 15th Street is listed as the owner and F.P. Dinkelberg of 1 Union Square is listed as architect. Note that this finding is at odds with an earlier announcement in the Real Estate Record in 1895 that John C. Burne would be the architect for this site (with as yet undrawn plans).

But the block and lot files are unequivocal: Dinkelberg was the architect. His signature and correspondence are found throughout the files. It is likely that John Kehoe intended the building as a speculative investment, but when the Great Atlantic Tea and Pacific Company signed on as the lead tenant, Kehoe adapted to his new tenant’s needs by changing architects. The mason P.J. Carlin of 289 Fourth Avenue was hired to do the construction work. Carlin’s firm was ubiquitous in Manhattan at the time.6

6 Municipal Archives of the City of New York, Block 218/lot 24 file; Real Estate Record 1895.

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Image 60: Rosettes decorating 67 Vestry Street.

The plans were amended slightly in 1896 to further specify that the building would be 85 feet high with a flat tin roof, bluestone coping, brick walls, and pine beams. There is much back and forth in these files between the city and the architect over the method of construction, the nature of the curtain wall, the thickness of the walls, and the use of steel beams, all fodder for architectural historians: Frederick Dinkelberg is thought to have later designed the landmarked Flatiron Building in 1902 as an associate at Daniel Burnham. 7

The location was a spectacular choice for the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company. Facing the River, right across from the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Dock and the Desbrosses Ferry (demolished), this was the perfect place to get produce in and out of the city.

The Great Atlantic and Pacific Company had been founded nearby at 31 Vesey Street in 1859 alongside the great Washington Market (now demolished). The founders were Huntington Hartford and George Gilman. By 1896 their company was well on its way to becoming a household name across the United States. It was popularly known as the “A&P”. It had already experimented with creating its own “8 O’Clock Coffee” brand. It was by then also innovating in the use of refrigerated railroad cars to transport fruit and fish to the Midwest. They claim to have had 5,000 supply routes at

7 See the Wikipedia entry for Frederick Dinkelberg for a summary of his career.

57 that time. When the ad below appeared in the Penn Yan Democrat on Friday, 11, 1901 (ad courtesy Fulton History), the site at 67 Vestry was listed as its primary national warehouse at the bottom right of the ad.8

Image 61: A&P Ad from 1901.

The corner of Vestry and West was also a natural choice. The buildings just off of the spine of the famous Washington Street were the core of the largest produce market in the world, the epicenter of a worldwide supply chain reaching deep into the American republic and around the world. At the time, our still rural country was - in terms of farm size - the small-farmer or “yeoman” republic that Thomas Jefferson so famously dreamt about and argued for. Washington Market and within it, the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company redistributed the food those small farmers cultivated. Washington Market was their market, and A&P, their distributor. Where else, but here, off Washington Street, could the iconic A & P choose a new warehouse?

8 See company history at the website of the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company (www.aptea.com), and for the ad, see The Penn Yan Democrat of Friday, January 11, 1901, page 9.

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Image 62: Detail of 67 Vestry Street

From the circa 1900 photo of the building (Collections of the Museum of the City of New York), the new A& P warehouse is a handsome palazzo with two-story Romanesque openings for the loading docks, and an extremely fine iron cornice. It’s pale brick ads a touch of lightness as to the oversized ground floor windows. The small iron balconies on the east side add an unexpected flourish (they are since removed). It’s thick walls and striated brick patterning convey a hint of medieval fortress, a safe place to store food, come hell or high water. In the photo, note that it is situated next to an older four-story building (now demolished).

The A&P warehouse replaced three, three-story brick buildings on West Street and two three-story brick buildings on Vestry.9

9 We have not been able to track down the owners and uses to which those smaller buildings were put.

Image 63: Wim Wenders film still showing 67 Vestry with its cornice still intact.

Dinkelberg was born in 1858 and studied architecture at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. In 1881, he began practicing architecture in New York City. He designed a 26-story skyscraper on Broadway between Battery Place and Maiden Street (demolished), a row of limestone revival townhouses in Sugar Hill (now in the Hamilton Heights-Sugar Hill Historic District). He worked for a time for the firm of Daniel Burnham, during which time he designed the Santa Fe building (now in the Historic Michigan District), and the Heyworth Building in Chicago (an official Chicago Landmark). During his tenure with Daniel Burnham, he did the work for the Flatiron Building (an official New York City Landmark). He was co-designer of the 35 East Wacker Building in Chicago, an official landmark. He moved to Chicago later in his career and died impoverished.

In 1910 the building ‘s new owner, John Finn, requested permission to build three stories on top of the building (Alteration Plan 1386 of 1910). Thus began an intense back and forth between the city and the new architect hired for the work, Frank. J. Helmle. The city insisted that the building could not support three additional stories, and eventually the parties agreed on a two-story addition. The old cornice was removed and a different, but also very fine cornice capped the new addition. The photo above, taken from a film still from Wim Wender’s film, “An American Friend” in 1977, shows Helmle’s sympathetic addition to Dinkelberg’s building.

Helmle was also at the same time working on the Globe Electrotype Company at 209 West 38th Street. According the the survey done for Helmle’s work on the George Washington Masonic Memorial, “he was born in Marietta Ohio and moved to New York to study architecture at Cooper Union and the School of Fine Arts of the Brooklyn Museum. In 1890, he joined the firm of McKim, Meade, and White where he stayed for several years before opening his new office. He designed the Italian Renaissance Revival Boathouse in 1905 in Prospect Park as well as the Tennis House

60 Draft in 1910. He did the Bossert Hotel on Montague Street in Brooklyn (now in Brooklyn Heights Historic District). He also served for a time as Superintendent of Public Buildings and Offices as of 1902. It is during that time he worked on many fire department repair shops and the courthouse in Brooklyn on Gates Avenue. One of his engine houses is Engine 94, ladder 48 at Hunts Point10. He is also known for the spectacular Tracy Mansion in Brooklyn (in Park Slope Historic District).11 In 1921, the architectural firm, Helmle & Corbett, received the commission to design the GWMNM. The firm's senior partner, Frank J. Helmle (1869-1939), was born in Marietta, Ohio in 1869. He moved to New York for his architectural training, studying at Cooper Union and the School of Fine Arts of the Brooklyn Museum. In 1890, he joined the firm of McKim, Mead & White and stayed for a year before opening his own office. Prior to entering into a partnership with Harvey Wiley Corbett in 1912, he had created a firm with Ulrich Huberty and designed several bank buildings in Brooklyn. The firm also designed the Italian Renaissance Revival Boathouse (1905) and the Tennis House (1910) in Prospect Park, Brooklyn. Helmle's versatility as a designer extended to designs for modern, fireproof, multistory buildings with simplified decoration. For example, in 1910 he designed the Bien Building, a loft located on Thirty-Eighth Street on Manhattan.

Image 64: Detail of 67 Vestry Street

10 www.nycfiremuseum.pastperfect-online.com/32553cgi/mweb.e 11 See the engaging essay on Frank J. Helme, called”Walkabout: Frank J. Helme” by Montrose Morris at www.brownstoner.com/bog/2010/walkabout-frank

61 In 1912, Helmle partnered with Harvey Wiley Corbett and the firm took on larger projects both in the United States and abroad. In 1916, the firm designed the functionally innovative Bush Tower on 42n Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York for the owners of Brooklyn's vast Bush Terminal. Three years later, Irving T. Bush hired Helmle & Corbett to design a trade center, known as Bush House, in London. Helmle & Corbett was asked to propose a design for the GWMNM in 1921.4 While designed by Corbett, the building showed Helmle's influence through its fireproof reinforced concrete structure. The proposed memorial also kept within Helmle's design principle: "simplicity should be the watchword." Its exterior, especially the tower, consists of a streamlining of overall form, emphasizing line and height.”12

The building at 67 Vestry also housed other tenants back in its warehouse heyday, among them the Harford Suspension Company (who made shock absorbers for cars), the Kumfy Woolen Company, and for a time, it had warehouse space for the famous toiletries company of Hall and Ruckel (whose warehouses were nearby on Greenwich Street in Tribeca North Historic District).

The building was used as artist lofts in the late 1960’s and 1970’s and given a legal certificate of occupancy for residential use in 1977. The 1970 in fact began a new chapter for the building as home and backdrop to internationally recognized artists and composers. It was clearly one of several key centers of Tribeca’s rebirth through art after the destabilization of the neighborhood and massive destruction of the Washington Street Urban Renewal Plan. The sculptor Marisol lived and worked here, as did John Chamberlain, and Robert Wilson (director, sculptor collaborator with Phillip Glass on Einstein on the Beach). Wim Wenders filmed part of “An American Friend” here. Laurie Anderson used it as a backdrop for her album stills. The Dia Arts Foundation got its start here. 13

12 Kate M. Kocyba, George Washington Masonic National Memorial, (Washington: National Park Service, Historic American Buildings Survey, 2010), 3 - 4. 13 Interview with long-time residents and current artists of 67 Vestry Street carried out by Tribeca Trust. Residents were Paul Pagk, Cathy Drew, and Veronique Nguy

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Image 65: Detail of 67 Vestry

Image 66: 67 Vestry today, with the cornice removed.

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Image 67: Album Cover by Laurie Anderson with 67 Vestry in the background.

438-440 Washington Street, aka 31 Desbrosses

Image 68: 438 Washington Street, upper floors

According to the Real Estate and Records Guide, of Jan. 14, 1899, p. 53 this building was put up 1899 by the owner, L. Mitchell of 1782 Lexington Avenue. It was built on the site of a former mahogany wood lot. It is six-stories, made of brick, stone, and features terra cotta decorative keystones. The architects were the well-known firm of Kurtzer and Rohl, of 3rd Ave and 7th Street. Kurzer and Rohl were popular architects of the time, working in their prime with many buildings to their credit. This building is extraordinary (see photos), despite abuse under its undercurrent ownership, the terra cotta is still intact. It housed many different businesses over the years, including an outpost of the Harold’s Luncheonette chain on the ground floor. It was just a block away from the ferry and pier at West and Desbrosses. It famously housed Sonn Brothers Whiskies who occupied it from the time of opening to 1912. Their old painted sign on the west façade can still be seen. Walter Grutchfield has documented this business (see www.waltergrutchfield.net).

The terra cotta sailor keystone heads along the top story were made in Staten Island by the Atlanta Terra Cotta Company’s outpost there. They were most likely modeled on a real person (see www.urbansculptures.com/sculptures/sailor.php)

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Image 69: 438 Washington Street in 2014

Image 70: 438 Washington Ghost Sign of Sonn Whiskies

Image 70a: Terra Cotta Keystone of 438 Washington

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465-469 Washington, Block 595, Lot 30

This five-story building on the east side of Washington between Canal and Watts Street is of unknown date and architect. There is a “NB” number dated 1867, but no further details were uncovered. In 1896, an alteration permit lists Alfred Taylor as the architect. He was proposing shoring up the foundation of an existing 5-story building. It was described then as a storage warehouse for oilcloth, and the owner was Nathaniel Powers of Lansingburgh, New York. Lansingburgh was well known for its floor oilcloths since the early 1800’s, so this may have been a NY warehouse for their products. Powers held patents for multiple floor oil-cloth designs. In 1918 the building is listed as on another alteration form as a “sirup bottling plant”.

The building is under new ownership. The owner proposes a large, out-of-scale addition with a brick skin.

Image 71: 465 Washington Street

69 459-463 Washington Street (Block 595, Lot 7503)

This exceptionally handsome 7-story warehouse and manufacturing building with terra cotta decorative elements was occupied by artists for a long time and has recently restored to its full glory and transformed into condominium apartments. Residents call it the John Watts Building, but it had no association with John Watts. It was built on the site of the also handsome Primary School 11 of the Fifth Ward.

Samuel Weil, a landowner and developer in the vicinity, build this warehouse in 1897 and leased as “newly erected” in the same year to George Tower, the warehouse operator. Louis Korn was the architect. Korn’s work is also found in the historic districts of Greenwich Village and the Ladies Mile (91-93 Fifth Avenue is one of his more notable buildigns).

A map in 1924 shows this building to be in the hands of the “Independent Warehouse Company”. In 1924, the Times reported that the Lehigh Valley Railroad took possession of the property to be used an inland freight station.

Image 72: 2012 Marketing Photo of 459 Washington Street

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Image 73: 465 Washington and 459-463 Washington Street, 2014.

Image 74: 459-463 Washington St.

472 Greenwich Street, Block 595, Lot 44

Built in 1893 (NB 996-93), this building was intended to be a seven-story brick and stone warehouse . The architect was M. V. B. Ferdon. The original owner was S. C. Welsch. It was used as the Worcestershire Sauce Factory. Space was eventually rented to the whisky distillery of Kerln and Dunn, where an explosion occurred in 1907. In 1944, the building ended up in the hands of investors and changed hands several times. A hardware manufacturer bought it 1946.

The architect, M. Ferdon, had done apartment buildings on Central Park West and 448 West 152nd Street, the latter an elaborate mansion converted to church use in 1932. Several of his buildings are in the West End Avenue Historic District.

Image 75: 470 and 472 Greenwich. 472 is the narrow building in the middle.

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470 Greenwich (Building absent from NYC Block and lot maps)

This attractive seven-story warehouse has an unsual pattern of keystones. It was most likely built between 1890 and 1899. There is no record of it at the Department of Buildings. Block and lot files for it appear to be missing. Nether is there a record for it at the Office of Metropolitan History. This is unfortunate as the building was clearly designed by an architect of competence. We know that it was occupied around 1900 by the Beardsley Company which had been founded years earlier at 179 West Street. They had a patent for shredded codfish and make a popular mix used to produce a kind of fried fish ball. Beardsley took over several buildings on this block (470-476). Beardsely eventually expanded to New Jersey and Connecticut. This building at #470 Greenwich was also used as a seed warehouse for the Danish seed company “Ingemann Christianson” in the 1920’s. Ingemann existed until 2001 when it was bought out by another company. Beardsley produced its codfish mix until the 1970’s.

Image 76: Detail of 470 Greenwich Street

Image 77: 470 Greenwich Street

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Image 78: View of 468-474 Greenwich. An individually landmarked federal row house is under scaffolding to the right. This ensemble merits inclusion in the historic district.

75 136 Watts Street, Block 595 Lot 48 and 130 Watts, Block 595, Lot 7502 (aka 468 Greenwich

These handsome six-story buildings of brick and stone were built by Henry Kroger in 1911 with the architect Alexandre Baylies. They appear as if they are one building, but are in fact two. In 1935 the western building was leased by J. Sausville and Sons, makers of bakers and confectioners supplies. Baylies’s buldings are scattered throughout Tribeca Nort and Tribeca West. The eastern building was leased in the 1930’s to Damon Type Founders Company and sold in 1937 Frederick Brown. In 1999 it was converted to co-op residences.

Image 79: 468 Greenwich and 136 Watts Streets in the 1920’s.

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Image 80: 468 and 136 Watts in 2014

77 474 Greenwich Street, Block 595, Lot 41

This six-story brick warehouse was built in 1893. (NB 1275-93). The owner was Samuel Weil. The architect was G. F. Pelham. It replaced a two-story brick building owned by Bernard Smyth. The builder was J. Van Dolsen. It replaced a two story row house.

The architect George F. Pelham was a prolific designer of row houses on the Upper West Side. He is noted particularly for the Fowler Court, “one of the finest examples of the modern French apartment on Morningside Heights).

Image 81: 474 Greenwich Stre

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428-430 Washington Street (Block 223, Lot 18)

John Snook and Sons designed this building in 1923 as a warehouse and office building (NB 629-23). It is on the site of one of many buildings in the area owned by Wilcox and Co and used for lard refining.

Image 82: 428-430 Washington Street.

449 Washington Street, Block 224, Lot 23

This non-contributing, vaguely contextual building is a recent renovation of an earlier, small warehouse building at this location (see photos).

Image 83: 449 Washington Street (non-contributing).

Image 84: 447 and 449 Washington Street as of 1980.

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Image 85: 449 Washington is the small building in the middle. The building to the left is an individual landmark known as the Fleming Warehouse (designed by Stephen Hatch). The building in the middle was torn down just two years ago. The building to the right was torn down shortly after the Holland Tunnel opened and was replaced by a two-story truck repair shop, seen as 447 Washington in the photo below.

Image 86: The proposed additional structure to top off 449 Washington (construction in process).

81 432-436 Washington Street (NB -16-1936)

This building went up in 1936 as a two-story brick garage, reflecting the growing importance of trucks to the area and the decline of horse-drawn equipment after the 1917 opening of the Holland Tunnel. Gas stations also went up on the block just north of this building (all now). A stable building went up at 449 Washington (now demolished) as late as 1913. While this building has little architectural significance, it is important that it was a low-rise masonry structure and that any future building on the site be contextual to the historic district around it.

Image 87: 432-436 Washington.

427-429 Washington (52 Vestry), Block, 223, Lot 21

Block 223 includes the area bounded by West, Vestry, Desbrosses, and Greenwich. Washington Street was cut through this block, dividing it into two parts. Hugh Gaines obtained most of the land from Oliver Jacques who had obtained it from Trinity. The owners subsequent to Gaines built on the lots.

Number 427-429 Washington is now a severe eight-story warehouse building constructed in 1920 on the east side of the Street at the corner of Vestry Street. George and Edward Blum, well-established architects with training at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris designed this building as a warehouse and factory for Samuel Well

82 Draft of 194 Franklin Street. The architects later became known later for an art nouveau style of apartment house. Their future design predilections are evident here in this building, if you compare it to a photo of one of their apartment houses on the West Side.

Image 88: 427-429 Washington is the tall pale brick building in the background of this image, 2014.

Image 89: 427-429 Washington Streets

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Image 90: East side "deco" apartment buildings designed by the same architect as 427 Washington Street.

85 437 Washington Street, Block 223, Lot 26

This federal era home (Image 91 below) was built in 1824 and may be the oldest house in Tribeca. In 1821 the executors of Hugh Gaines’ estate sold the lot to John B. Morton. Morton had bought the lot right behind it facing Greenwich Street in 1821. Morton later went through some hard times such that in 1855 he petitioned the Common Council for “relief from rents”. The building was used as a home until the turn of the 20th century.

Image 91: One of Ada Louise Huxtable's favorites, 437 Washington Street, see her book, Classic New York

A 1907 alteration plan (#3155) described the building as a “dwelling for two families” that was to be converted into lofts. There had been a peaked roof which was then altered to allow for more storage on the top floor. The owner at the time was listed as Arthur Bullova of 25 Liberty Street. In 1961 a new stair to the basement was built by Liborio Tringali Ironworks. Tringali was an Italian immigrant to the area, arriving in the 1920’s. He was a blacksmith and ended up starting an ironwork business in the area, settling into a two-story workshop at 401 Greenwich (since demolished). He only left Tribeca in the 1990’s. He was famous for his tree guards which were used all over Manhattan. The family business is still in operation in New Jerseb. Ada Louise Huxtable praised the building in her 1964 book, Classic New York. It is unchanged since her book came out.

Image 92: Liborio Tringale, founder of Tringale Iron Works at 401 Greenwich Street. Mr. Tringale began work in Tribeca in the 1920’s. He did the stairs for 427 Washington and many of the tree guards found throughout lower Manhattan (literally thousands of them). His family business still operates in New Jersey. His low-rise workshop at 401 Greenwich was deemed non-contributory in Tribeca West Historic district and demolished for a larger, but somewhat contextual replacement.

Image 93: One of Mr. Tringale's tree guards on Washington Street in Greenwich Village.

Image 94: Details of 437 Washington Street, “Truckmen”

Image 95: Brownstone foundations at 437 Washington Street

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Image 96: A view of the lovely and significant ensemble on the east side of Washington between Laight and Vestry, from right to left, 431, 433, 435, 437, 439, 441 Washing Street. The oldest house is 437, built around 1830.

89 435 Washington Street, Block 223, Lot 25

This four-story house is almost as old as its neighbor at #4437. Gaines sold two back-to-back lots in 1824 to the Lorillard family. The Lorillards squabbled over the lots in 1840 and the lot ended up in the hands of Peter Lorillard. Lots fronting Greenwich (#20 and #25) went to Robert and Maria Bartow, who passed them on to Charles Walker. In 1896, John and Anne Walker gave 1/3rd ownership of the lots to their son Spencer and he in turn passed ownership of his residential lot #25 to to Ann Ely Duignon in 1896. Duignon sold to David Knott in 1920 and Knotss sold it in 1924 to the 166 Watts Corporation. It was residential until ownership by David Knott.

Image 97: 435 Washington Street

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433 Washington Street, Block 223, Lot 24

See image 93 above. 433 Washington is the six-story mid-block building.

Image 98: 433 Washington Street

Built as a warehouse in 1909 by owner Hyman and Max Kantor with Harry Dean as architect (NB -443-09). It was most likely used as a whisky warehouse, possibly even a distillery, including an illegal one throughout the Prohibition period. The Kantors sold the building in 1923 to the famous whiskey and rum distiller company owned by Harry Publickier of Philadelphia. In 1930, Publickier sold it to Kinsey Distilling. It changed hands among various distilling firms and eventual sold to one that made medical grade alcohol.

439 Washington, Block 223, Lot 27 (NB 368 of 1866)

This corner lot passed from Hugh Gaines ownership to Trinity Church, then in 1821 to John Martin. In 1889, lot 27 was owned by Christiana and Erastis Titus. They granted title to their son, Erastus Titus, Jr. The Titus family were from Titus, PA, and were 2nd and 3rd generation small businessmen in the flour, milling, and baking business. The family ran a large and successful cracker bakery at least since 1850 at 283 Washington Street (now demolished). The building most certainly served as their bakery as of 1889 and for many years afterward, as the company was in business into the 1920’s, expanding into Newark as well. The family dabbled in oil investments as well around Titus, PA. (See Baker’s Review, 1916 and business directories of the produce exchange).

Image 99: 439 Washington/27 Vestry Street

92 Draft

431 Washington, Block 223, Lot 23

The DOB declared the small building at this lot unsafe in 1909 and again in 1920. In 1922 they issued an alteration permit for transformation of the existing building into a two-story wheelwright shop owned by Domenico Tringale of Brooklyn. Wheelwrights repair wooden wheels. The building shows very little change. It now houses a store on the ground floor and an apartment on the second floor. It is likely that Domenico Tringale was related to Laborio Tringali, mentioned as the maker of the basement stairs for the building up the block.

Image 100: 431 Washington Street, built as a wheelwright shop, now with apartment on the first floor and a shop on the ground floor, back to how this neighborhood was occupied in the 1850’s.

Image 101: a drawing of what wheelwrights used to do.

266 West Street (Block 223, Lot 3)

Image 102: Block 223, 3, heavily modified garage.

Image 103: Lot 223, Lot 5, Early Garage on the Waterfront, with a bit of architecture to it

94 Draft

270 West Street Block 223, Lot 9

This block and lot files of the Department of Buildings for this 19th century building appear to have disappeared. It was converted to both a hotel and restaurant, and was home to many years of Ponte Restaurant. Ponte recently sold it to Related Companies. We do now it was built on the site of the offices of the former North River Foundry (see Image 106). An early undated Bromley map for the NYPL indicates that this was the site of the former Eagle Sugar Refinery, a business in operation as of 1872. Later it became a hotel. As of 1955 this building was both a restaurant and a hotel. Related Companies, the large real estate developer owns it now and wants to tear it down and build a tower.

Image 104: 270 West Street

95 24 Desbrosses Street, Block 224, Lot 33 and 441-5 Washington Street, Block 224, Lot 21

These non-contributing corner lots once held typical federal era houses. They ended up as tenements, one of which briefly housed a James Butler chain grocery store. In the 1940’s and 1950’s they were torn down and replaced with garage buildings for truck parking and repair. These non-contributing lots need to be brought under the regulatory authority of the Landmarks Preservation Commission so that eventual buildings are contextual to a great block that houses the single individual landmark in Tribeca North, the Stephen Decatur Hatch masterpiece known as the Fleming Warehouse at 451 Washington Street.

96 Draft

268 West Street, Block 223, Lots 7, 5, and 3

This fine 19th century building (despite removal of the cornice n the 1970’s) was the site of the North River Foundry (see Image 106 of the drawing from the Frick). The corner lot became a garage and repair shop. The middle two buildings became a 266 West paper warehouse and the headquarters of the Ponte carting company.

Image 105: 268 West Street

Image 106: North River Foundry and Dunham, West Street, 1850s? (Frick Collection)

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181 Hudson (Block 222, 7501)

Image 107: 181 Hudson Street

This building was purpose-built for the pharmaceutical company Parke-Davis in 1909 (they are now a subsidiary of Pfizer). It is substantially unchanged through time. Compare it to the Museum of the city of New York photo below. It was used in the 1960’s for the new home of El Diario-La Prensa newspaper. Governor Luis Munoz Marin of Puerto Rico and Senator Robert Kennedy attended the ribbon cutting ceremony here in 1966. It is now a residential co-op.

Image 108: Museum of City of NY photo of Parke Davis Company building at 181 Hudson in 1909.

100 Draft

183 Hudson (Block 222, Lot 7502)

This building was built by Trinity Church in 1929. Lockwood, Greene and Co. were the architects (NB 211-24). Many of Lockwood’s buildings are on the National Register of Historic Places. The building was originally used as storage by the United States Rubber Company, and then by many different printing firms. It was sympathetically converted to residential co-ops in 1998.

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305 Canal, Block 225, Lot 8

Trinity Church commissioned this 12 –story warehouse and factory building in 1927. The architect was the well-known firm of Renwick, Aspinwall and Guard who did the New York Farm Colony on Staten Island (among other notable buildings).

Image 109: 305 Canal

102 Draft

200 Hudson (Block 221, Lot 30)

Trinity commissioned this fine warehouse and factory building in 1927, also by Renwick, Aspinwall, and Guard.

Image 110: 200 Hudson

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14 Desbrosses (115-121 Watts Street), Block 225, 7502 (now lot 6)

Image 111: 121 Watts, mixes office and residential condo

104 Draft

12 Desbrosses (123 Watts), Block 225, Lot 6 (old map), now lot 4

Image 112: Watts Street entrance (#123) of 12 Desbrosses

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Image 113: 12 Desbrosses entrance of 123 Watts, Block 225, former lot 6, now lot 4)

123 Watts Street (Block 225, lot 4)

Image 114: The six-story pale brick building is 119-21 Watts, Block 225, lot 7502

The four story gray building was built in the 1930’s and housed a woolen company. It It underwent substantial modifications and is now has 15 residential units.

106 Draft

Table of Images

Image 1: 460 Washington Street ...... 6 Image 2: This humble garage building on Vestry Street was cut in half by the 1993 historic district boundaries...... 9 Image 3: Pink boundaries indicates the proposed expansion for Tribeca North...... 11 Image 4: Map showing outlines of Lispenard Farm ...... 12 Image 5: NYPL Map of Manhattan, late 1700's ...... 13 Image 6: 1804 map of northern Tribeca...... 14 Image 7: St. John's Park in winter before the railroad terminus ...... 15 Image 8: New version of Canal Park as of 1893. From Scribner’s magazine of 1893...... 16 Image 9: Municipal Archives photo of Canal Park ...... 16 Image 10: View of St. John's Chapel from an approaching ferry (NYPL) ...... 17 Image 11: Desbrosses Street Ferry 1900 (?), NYPL ...... 18 Image 12: Desbrosses Street Ferry, circa 1910 (Municipal Archives)...... 18 Image 13: Sketch of the elevated trains along Greenwich, showing horse-pulled omnibuses...... 19 Image 14: NYPL Map of Northern Tribeca ...... 20 Image 15: Children in an old federal-style house on Laight ...... 21 Image 16: late 19th Century horse-drawn bustle on West Street, looking north from Franklin (NYPL) 22 Image 17: Detail of the Hudson Rail Terminal and statue of Vanderbilt ( ...... 23 Image 18: Vacated buildings from the Washington Street Urban Renewal area after eminent domain removed occupants, circa 1965...... 24 Image 19: Bromley Block/Lot Property Map, circa 1910 ...... 25 Image 20: In 1930, the city was proud of its capacity to maintain Belgian block, here at Canal Street. . 26 Image 21: Freight Station at Desbrosses and West Streets ...... 26 Image 22: Early horse-drawn bus on West Street along the way to a ferry landing...... 27 Image 23: Laight Street family working from home, photo by Lewis Hines (NYPL)...... 27 Image 24: Early Bromley map of Tribeca North, south of Watts, ...... 28 Image 25: Early Bromley map of the area, north of Watts ...... 28 Image 26: 1931 Municipal Archives image showing a car accident at Canal and West ...... 29 Image 27: Hudson Railroad car going north on Hudson Street around 1910 (NYPL) ...... 29 Image 28: NYPL image of children playing on West Street in 1918 ...... 30 Image 29: School at 461 Greenwich Street (demolished). Note shadow on wall...... 31

107 Image 30: Laight Street residents, 1910's...... 32 Image 31: 489 Washington Street ...... 33 Image 32: WW 2 Image of the Lower West Side in its prime, ...... 33 Image 33: 530 Canal Street, Block 595/Lot 11, see also image 27 ...... 35 Image 34: 528 Canal Street, Block 595/Lot 14 ...... 36 Image 35: 472 Washington Street circa 1900 (NYPL)...... 37 Image 36: Letterhead for Holbrook Soaps ...... 38 Image 37: The original Holbrook Soap Co, on Washington and Vestry in 1850 ...... 39 Image 38: Photo of the fire at the Old Holbrook Company ...... 39 Image 39: Photo of 466 Washington Street, probably taken in 1890...... 40 Image 40: Photo of 466 Washington from the late 1920's (NYPL). The owner made the middle windows square and moved the fire escape to the left. The shadow of the older federal house on the right is still visible. Catch a glimpse of the 1922 structure at 460 Washington Street to the far right. Note the sausage casings painted sign on the upper right...... 41 Image 41: 466 Washington Street today...... 42 Image 42: Brickwork and structural stars beautifully visible on the north face of 466 Washington Street...... 43 Image 43: Current detail of the handsome roofline of 466 Washington Street...... 43 Image 44: 460 Washington Street (now demolished)...... 44 Image 45: Letter from Egypt written to the Union Drawn Steel Co at 460 Washington Street...... 45 Image 46: 460 Washington seen with the freight yard just south (now demolished)...... 46 Image 47: 288 West Street, still standing...... 47 Image 48: Spectacular loading bay at 288 West Street...... 48 Image 49: Proud letterhead of the Lansing Company, showing a drawing of 288 West Street ...... 49 Image 50: Demolished building at NW corner Watts and West Street...... 49 Image 51: 426 Washington Street ...... 50 Image 52: 142 Watts Street ...... 51 Image 53: Detail 142 Watts Street ...... 52 Image 54: Terra cotta elements at 142 Watts Street ...... 52 Image 56: New York Architectural Terra Cotta ...... 53 Image 57: 142 Watts Street in the 1940's. Photo from the NYPL...... 54 Image 58: 67 Vestry as a brand new building in 1897...... 55 Image 59: Detail of 67 Vestry's thick walls...... 56 Image 60: Rosettes decorating 67 Vestry Street...... 57 Image 61: A&P Ad from 1901...... 58 Image 62: Detail of 67 Vestry Street ...... 59 Image 63: Wim Wenders film still showing 67 Vestry with its cornice still intact...... 60 Image 64: Detail of 67 Vestry Street ...... 61 Image 65: Detail of 67 Vestry ...... 63 Image 66: 67 Vestry today, with the cornice removed...... 64 Image 67: Album Cover by Laurie Anderson with 67 Vestry in the background...... 65 Image 68: 438 Washington Street, upper floors ...... 66 Image 69: 438 Washington Street in 2014 ...... 67 Image 70a: Terra Cotta Keystone of 438 Washington ...... 68 Image 71: 465 Washington Street ...... 69 Image 72: 2012 Marketing Photo of 459 Washington Street ...... 70 Image 73: 465 Washington and 459-463 Washington Street, 2014...... 71 Image 75: 470 and 472 Greenwich. 472 is the narrow building in the middle...... 72 Image 76: Detail of 470 Greenwich Street ...... 73 Image 77: 470 Greenwich Street ...... 74 Image 78: View of 468-474 Greenwich...... 75 Image 79: 468 Greenwich and 136 Watts Streets in the 1920’s...... 76 Image 80: 468 and 136 Watts in 2014 ...... 77 Image 81: 474 Greenwich Stre ...... 78 Image 82: 428-430 Washington Street...... 79

108 Draft

Image 83: 449 Washington Street (non-contributing)...... 80 Image 84: 447 and 449 Washington Street as of 1980...... 80 Image 85: 449 Washington is the small building in the middle...... 81 Image 86: The proposed additional structure to top off 449 Washington (construction in process)...... 81 Image 87: 432-436 Washington...... 82 Image 88: 427-429 Washington is the tall pale brick building in the background of this image, 2014. . 83 Image 89: 427-429 Washington Streets ...... 84 Image 90: East side "deco" apartment buildings designed by the same architect as 427 Washington Street...... 85 Image 91: One of Ada Louise Huxtable's favorites ...... 86 Image 92: Liborio Tringale, founder of Tringale Iron Works at 401 Greenwich Street...... 87 Image 93: One of Mr. Tringale's tree guards on Washington Street in Greenwich Village...... 87 Image 94: Details of 437 Washington Street, “Truckmen” ...... 88 Image 95: Brownstone foundations at 437 Washington Street ...... 88 Image 96: A view of the lovely and significant ensemble on the east side of Washington ...... 89 Image 97: 435 Washington Street ...... 90 Image 98: 433 Washington Street ...... 91 Image 99: 439 Washington/27 Vestry Street ...... 92 Image 100: 431 Washington Street, built as a wheelwright shop, ...... 93 Image 101: a drawing of what wheelwrights used to do...... 93 Image 102: Block 223, 3, heavily modified garage...... 94 Image 103: Lot 223, Lot 5, Early Garage on the Waterfront, with a bit of architecture to it ...... 94 Image 105: 268 West Street ...... 97 Image 106: North River Foundry and Dunham, West Street, 1850s? (Frick Collection) ...... 98 Image 107: 181 Hudson Street ...... 99 Image 108: Museum of City of NY photo of Parke Davis Company building at 181 Hudson in 1909...... 100 Image 109: 305 Canal ...... 102 Image 110: 200 Hudson ...... 103 Image 111: 121 Watts, mixes office and residential condo ...... 104 Image 112: Watts Street entrance (#123) of 12 Desbrosses ...... 105 Image 113: 12 Desbrosses entrance of 123 Watts, Block 225, former lot 6, now lot 4) ...... 106 Image 114: The six-story pale brick building is 119-21 Watts, Block 225, lot 7502 ...... 106

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Annex 1: Block and Lot Numbers

Block 595, Lots 14, 11, 6, 9, 22, 30, 7503, 51, 48, 41, 44, 7502

Block 224, Lots 36, 33, 21, 23 (none contributing except in massing and materials)

Block 223, 21, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 13, 15, 18, 20, 11, 12, 9, 7, 3, and Lot # missing.

Block 218, Lot 24 and Missing Lot #

Block 226, Lot 7502, 4, and 8

Block 222, Lot 7502, 7501

Block 221, Lot 30

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