116 Franklin Street

Tribeca | built 1872

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. 1870

    Financier Samuel D. Babcock buys two older buildings and commissions a loft from Griffith Thomas

    Samuel D. Babcock, active in railroads, finance, steamships and insurance, had turned to Tribeca real estate by 1859. In 1870 he bought two old buildings, Nos. 116 and 118 Franklin Street, which stood just east of West Broadway, and hired architect Griffith Thomas to replace them with a modern loft and store building. It was completed in 1872.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1872

    Moore & Bryant build Thomas's cast-iron Second Empire facade

    The Landmarks Preservation Commission says the builders Moore & Bryant carried out the construction. The cast-iron front has flat-arched window openings on slender columns, rusticated quoins and a cast-iron cornice with elaborate brackets. At street level, the original storefront framing members survive, along with granite sidewalk slabs.

    “…cast-iron facade, designed in the Second Empire style, features window openings with flat arches supported by slender columns…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  3. 1890

    June 8

    A braid wholesaler's salesrooms land in the sheriff's hands

    Charles R. Duxbury moved his wholesale braid and binding firm into the building in 1876. By 1889 the New York Times said the company paid slowly and its debts kept growing, and on June 8, 1890 it reported the salesrooms were in the sheriff's hands. President Thomas C. Snedeker then took over, reorganizing as Snedeker & Co. with his brothers Joseph and William as partners, without founder Duxbury.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1896

    January 24

    A salesman is locked in overnight and questioned by a suspicious policeman

    On January 24, 1896, Walter W. Walsh, a traveling salesman for J. L. Brown, worked late and found himself locked inside. A patrolman heard tapping and a voice asking for help, and, suspecting a burglar, questioned him through the iron door before fetching a ladder to free him. Walsh was still held at the station house until his identity was established.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 1899

    July 29

    A fire causes about $7,750 in losses for tenants of the Snedeker brothers' building

    A fire on July 29, 1899 caused losses of about $7,750 for the tenants at Nos. 116 and 118 Franklin Street. Architect Richard Berger altered the building in November 1901, mostly inside. Snedeker & Co., the main tenant, was by then better known for managing the 300-room Massapequa Hotel on Long Island than for its braids and trimmings.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

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All 564 buildings with stories in Tribeca