Powell Building

105 Hudson Street | Tribeca | built 1920

Open on the map4 entries

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

1. 1892

   Henry L. Pierce commissions Carrere & Hastings' first tall building for food-trade tenants

   Henry L. Pierce, a former mayor of Boston and U.S. congressman who owned the Walter Baker & Company cocoa business, built a seven-story office building at 105 Hudson Street in 1890-92. It was the first tall building by Carrere & Hastings, and it replaced four smaller residential buildings. It was intended for businesses dealing in food products and was known as the Pierce Building.

   Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

2. 1892

   Pierce's chocolate company takes the lower floors and rents the rest to other food firms

   Pierce had been hired as a clerk at the Baker Chocolate Company in 1849 for three dollars a week, and after Walter Baker died in 1854 he leased the business from the estate. By 1892 he wanted a permanent New York headquarters in place of leased offices. The chocolate firm took the lower floors of the new building, and food companies rented the floors above.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

3. 1905

   Ida May Powell adds four stories and gives the building her family's name

   In 1905 Ida May Powell, whose family ran a wholesale confections business, hired Henri Fouchaux to design a large extension that widened the building and raised it by four stories. The enlarged building was renamed the Powell Building for her family, and the Powell company occupied it for many years. Other occupants included importers of cheese, fruit and spices, a Cuban agriculture official and an Italian trade chamber.

   Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

4. 1975

   A developer converts the building to co-op apartments and offices

   Developer Joseph Cazana bought the building in the mid-1970s and converted it to 16 apartments and 24 offices. Architects Bone Levine restored the exterior in 2000, and the large bronze letters spelling POWELL BUILDING remain on the Hudson Street side. The nonprofit gallery Artists Space once exhibited in the commercial space, and as of 2011 Nobu restaurant occupied it.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

• The 1892 Powell Building - 105 Hudson StreetDaytonian in Manhattan

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