106 Spring Street

also 95 Mercer Street | SoHo | built 1896

Open on the map5 entries

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

1. 1896

   G. A. Schellinger completes a brick, stone and terra-cotta loft on the site of six old houses

   Six small houses at Mercer and Spring Streets, leased by David Taggart in 1883, were demolished in 1895 for a store and loft building designed by G. A. Schellinger. Finished in 1896, it has a rusticated stone base and cast-iron shop windows, with three-story piers above that look like arched openings. Baroque cartouches hang from the cornice, and many early tenants worked in the silk trade.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

2. 1902

   May 17

   Silk dyers, helpers and finishers walk out in a general strike, and the building's silk dealers lock their doors

   The New York Times reported that on May 17, 1902 a general strike was called and the silk dealers in the building locked their doors. The silk dyers, helpers and finishers were ordered out by their union, and work stopped at 4 p.m. after the men were given until then to finish jobs and get silk out of harm's way. The building's tenants included Greff & Co. and the Phoenix Silk Manufacturing Company.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

3. 1902

   A silk manufacturer with space here takes a policeman on an unwilling ride in his French racing car through Harlem

   Benjamin B. Tilt, a wealthy silk maker with space here, took stockbroker Frank W. Duryea for a night drive in 1902. When a mounted policeman stopped them in Harlem, he jumped in between the pair, who sped off with him aboard while he blew his whistle until begging to be let go. Tilt was held on $500 awaiting trial, then left court saying they would go to West Point even faster.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

4. 1931

   August 10

   Six robbers cow two office workers and flee with a $465 payroll from a leather novelty firm

   As the Depression brought hard times and burglaries, the George L. Robbins Company, a leather novelty maker, was held up in August 1931. The New York Times reported that six robbers frightened a secretary and a bookkeeper at about 4 p.m. and got away with a $465 payroll that was sitting in a pasteboard box on a radiator.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

5. 1980

   The upper floors become artists' live-work lofts, and the Art et Industrie gallery moves into the building

   As the silk district's factories emptied and SoHo was rediscovered by artists, the building was converted in 1980 to joint living and working quarters for artists on its upper floors. The Art et Industrie gallery had its home here through the 1980s, and in the 1990s the Jacques Carcanagues gallery took its place. In 2005 Burton Snowboards took the first floor of 95 Mercer Street.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

• Industrial Splendor -- Nos. 95-99 Mercer StreetDaytonian in Manhattan

Nearby

• 114 Spring Street1 entry
• 93 Mercer Street1 entry
• 118 Spring Street1 entry
• 120 Spring Street1 entry
• 80 Greene Street1 entry
• 122 Spring Street1 entry

All 736 buildings with stories in SoHo