104 Franklin Street

Tribeca | built 1868

Open on the map5 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1845

    Joseph Delafield hosts the Lyceum of Natural History in the house that stood before 104 Franklin

    Before the present building, 104 Franklin Street was the home of Major Joseph Delafield, a veteran of the War of 1812, and his wife Julia Livingston. Their son Maturin Livingston Delafield was born there on February 17, 1836. In 1845 Delafield, then president of the Lyceum of Natural History, which later became the New York Academy of Sciences, held a meeting of the group there. The family was still in residence in 1855.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1866

    Isaiah V. Williamson replaces a masonry dwelling with a Second Empire store and loft building

    Between 1866 and 1868 a masonry dwelling at 104 Franklin Street was replaced by a five-story store and loft building for Isaiah V. Williamson, about 25 feet wide and 100 feet deep. The painted stone facade has Corinthian pilasters flanking segmentally arched windows, with sill courses at each floor. The city's landmark report notes it is identical to its neighbor at No. 102, built at about the same time.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  3. 1867

    February 14

    A shoplifter runs down Franklin Street with Irish linens taken from William J. Best's shop

    On February 14, 1867, 21-year-old Charles Miller walked into the shop of linen importer William J. Best, pretending to make a purchase, and snatched 14 pieces of linen and about three dozen handkerchiefs. Pedestrians noticed a man running along Franklin Street with his arms full of tablecloths, and he was handed to Officer Stevens and taken to court. Best kept the ground-floor store until 1872, when he moved down the block to No. 119.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1868

    Silk ribbon makers Dexter, Lambert & Co. employ 202 workers at 104 Franklin Street

    Dexter, Lambert & Co., which an 1882 industrial history credited as the first American firm to weave silk ribbon, moved into the new building from Broadway in 1868. A New York Herald article of October 26 that year described its ribbons, fringes and gimps and its capacity of $1 million in goods a year. The firm had 202 workers in the building, about half of them young boys and girls. The Paterson silk maker John Ryle & Co. apparently moved in around the same time.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 1961

    The Loft Gallery opens around 1961, an early sign of Tribeca's turn to art

    The change in Tribeca from an industrial district to one of galleries and lofts first showed at 104 Franklin Street around 1961, when The Loft Gallery opened. The Poole Willis gallery followed in the 1980s. By 1985 the ground floor held a boutique called Aesthetics, and upstairs was Pentacle Dance Works, a nonprofit that offered performance space and promoted the arts.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

Nearby

All 564 buildings with stories in Tribeca