121 Chambers Street
also 103 Reade Street | Tribeca | built 1861
Open on the map5 entries
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.
- 1835
Nicholas Gilbert buys the family house at 121 Chambers Street, later a boarding house
In 1835 Nicholas Gilbert bought an earlier house on this lot, along with three lots behind it on Reade Street, when the area was still residential. His family moved into the Chambers Street house but did not stay long. By his death in 1851 it was a boarding house, and the Reade Street houses held blue-collar tenants and servants. This earlier building was torn down in 1860 for the present one.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1860
The Gilbert sons replace the old houses with a matching Italianate store building
In 1860 Gilbert's sons divided the property, and ship chandler Frederick Gilbert took the family house at 121 Chambers and the one behind it at 103 Reade. An architect whose name is lost designed twin stone buildings, his and one for his brother James next door. Frederick's through-block building was finished first, with a three-arch cast-iron storefront and a pedimented center bay of Corinthian columns on the second floor.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1861
A salesman accused of defrauding the Storrs Brothers is brought back from Arcade, New York
The Storrs Brothers, who sold fancy goods, watches and jewelry on the ground floor, bought $267.50 of merchandise from Irving J. Cook of Arcade, New York, in February 1860. Only afterward did they decide they had been tricked. A detective needed a year to find him, and Cook was brought to the city on February 16, 1861 to face a fraud charge. He replied that a Storrs clerk had first checked his standing as a businessman, and that he had since gone bankrupt.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1883
The Sun names a Chambers Street machinery dealer in its report on idle navy-yard tools
George Place & Co., which made drills, lathes and planers, worked from 121 Chambers by 1875. On July 6, 1883 The Sun ran a front-page exposé of waste at the Norfolk Navy Yard, where costly machines sat unused. It said the new machines had been bought from George Place at this address, and cited a radial drill priced at $4,430 and four listed items that together cost $13,110.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1885
A cigar firm's bookkeeper loses a 1,500-share railroad certificate between Wall Street and Chambers Street
Duncan S. Wylie, bookkeeper for cigar manufacturer Howard Ives, bought 1,500 shares of Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad stock on Wall Street on August 21, 1885. The envelope with the certificate slipped from his coat pocket on the way back to 121 Chambers. He advertised in The New York Times the next day, and a messenger boy named William Dunn who had found it returned it to Ives and received a reward.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
Further reading
- No. 121 Chambers Street (No. 103 Reade Street)Daytonian in Manhattan
Nearby
- 119 Chambers Street2 entries
- 123 Chambers Street3 entries
- 105 Reade Street3 entries
- 97 Reade Street5 entries
- Former Irving Savings Bank115 Chambers Street | 3 entries
- P. Ryan Packing Box Building109 Reade Street | 5 entries