Washington Market School Duane St

134 Duane Street | Tribeca | built 1860

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.

1866
British dry goods importers, an auction house and silk dealers fill 136-140 Duane Street in the 1860s
Several important dry goods firms occupied the building in the 1860s. They included Joseph Fisher & Co., later Fisher & Donnelly, importers of British goods, and Wilmerding & Mount, an auction house for imported dry goods. After 1866 Passavant & Co. sold silks, velvets, velveteens and satins there. Shoe wholesalers took over for much of the later period, and in the 1920s the Goodyear India Rubber Selling Co. rented space.
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
1940
Thalheim's Wearwell Shoe Co. rents space at 136-140 Duane Street, leaving a sign on the facade
Thalheim's Wearwell Shoe Co. was a tenant in the 1940s, and a wood sign reading Wearwell Shoe Co. Inc. still hung above the western part of the third story when the district was designated. The building's later shoe wholesalers included Langer Lippman Shoes and Jack Schwartz Shoes Inc. By the time of the report the ground floor held a nursery school and shops, with apartments above.
“A wood sign above the western section of the third story reads: "Wearwell Shoe Co. Inc.," a reference to Thalheim's Wearwell Shoe Co., a tenant in the 1940s.”
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

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