121 Greene Street

SoHo | built 1883

Open on the map6 entries

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

  1. 1879

    Neighbors in the same trade make a brothel at 121 Greene Street nearly impossible to prosecute

    After the Civil War, many former houses on Greene Street became brothels, including the one on this lot before the present building. The New York Dispatch reported in January 1879 that Justice Otterbourg ordered a complaint against No. 121, but evidence was hard to get because the surrounding neighbors were in the same business and could not credibly complain in court.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1883

    Henry Fernbach builds a six-story cast-iron loft for the Lewisohn brothers at 121-123 Greene Street

    Julius and Adolph Lewisohn, who imported and made ostrich feathers and artificial flowers, bought the two old buildings here in 1882, tore them down and hired Henry Fernbach. Construction began on June 28, 1882, and the six-story cast-iron building was finished nine months later. Fernbach was designing the neighboring Nos. 125 and 127 at the same time.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1883

    A hat manufacturer finds his Newark bookkeeper has padded the weekly payroll but declines to prosecute

    The hat firm Ferry & Napier kept offices and a showroom here, with a 250-worker factory in Newark. When profits lagged, George Ferry sent bookkeeper James Bull on vacation and had the head bookkeeper check the books, which showed weekly payroll totals inflated by $10 to $50. Ferry put the loss at $3,000 to $4,000. Bull confessed and repaid what he could, and Ferry pressed no charges.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1894

    May 1

    A furrier at 123 Greene Street has two brothers arrested in London for selling much of his $100,000 fur shipment

    Furrier Isaac Levi left Adolph and Montague Bernhard in charge of his New York business during a European buying trip in 1893, and he shipped $100,000 in furs from London. Returning in 1894, he learned they had sold much of the stock and gone abroad. He told the Press he had caused their arrest in London. The Evening World reported that valuable property said to be his was seized at their lodgings.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 1919

    December 29

    Reisman Barron & Co. fills three floors with a doll factory making sixty thousand heads a week

    Peerless Doll Company was in the building in 1918, and in 1919 Reisman Barron & Co. occupied three floors. A notice from December 29, 1919, described the operation as one of the city's largest and most complete doll factories. A 1920 trade advertisement said a whole floor made heads, with output above sixty thousand a week, while a second floor assembled complete dolls.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  6. 1988

    Upper floors become cooperative apartments in 1988, a decade after the Pincar Gallery opens in the building

    The Pincar Gallery opened at 121 Greene Street in March 1978, as artists took over SoHo's industrial lofts. In 1988 restoration architect Joseph Pell Lombardi converted the upper floors to a cooperative. The New York Times reported that the raw 4,000-square-foot floors at 123 Greene sold for about $800,000 each. Sperone Westwater and Modern Age galleries showed here in the 1990s.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

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