145 Chambers Street
Tribeca | built 1915
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.
- 1840
Campbell and Robert White, who lived here, are tied to the collapse of the Manhattan Bank
By 1832 the congressman and merchant Campbell White had moved to a house on this lot, an earlier building on the site, and his unmarried brother Robert joined the household. Both were directors of the Manhattan Bank. When the bank neared collapse in March 1840, Robert was arrested, and the account says the brothers had drawn on bank funds through loans to one another. The Morning Herald called the bank's management a disgrace.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1854
John C. White replaces the family house with a five-story store and loft building with a cast-iron front
In 1854 John C. White, brother of Campbell and Robert, demolished the house and put up a five-story store and loft building. Its storefront, with fluted Corinthian columns and pilasters, was among the early cast-iron fronts in the area, only about six years after the idea arrived in New York. The work damaged the party wall shared with Ellis Potter's house next door, leading to a lawsuit that ran until 1861.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1874
Cutlery seller Louis E. Howard follows a pickpocket until he finds a police officer
Louis E. Howard sold knives and cutlery in the building's retail space by 1874. On March 18 of that year a gang jostled him as he left a Broadway streetcar at Fourth Street and took his $160 watch and chain. Rather than alert the thieves, he quietly followed one until he found an officer. William Stanton was arrested, held on $1,000 bail, and had the watch in his pocket.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1895
Tenant J. S. Barron & Co. takes up the bicycle craze, selling Davidson bicycles including the tandem
By the mid-1890s the wooden-ware and house-furnishings dealer J. S. Barron & Co. was a tenant here. On November 21, 1895, The Iron Age reported that it would represent Davidson & Sons of Chicago, whose bicycles included a men's road wheel, a ladies' wheel and a tandem for two riders. The firm built its own building at Franklin Street and West Broadway in 1902.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1990
The Contemporary Russian Art Center of America is based here, holding Soviet art and documents
By 1990 the Contemporary Russian Art Center of America had its home in the building. The center started as a gallery for contemporary Soviet art and by then also kept Soviet books, magazines, photographs and documents. The upper floors were later converted to apartments, one per floor, in 2010.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
Further reading
- John C. White's 1854 No. 145 Chambers StreetDaytonian in Manhattan
Nearby
- 143 Chambers Street5 entries
- 153 Chambers Street5 entries
- Van Orden House135 Reade Street | 5 entries
- 150-152 Chambers Street150 Chambers Street | 7 entries
- 154 Chambers Street5 entries
- Richards Kingsland & Co. Building158 Chambers Street | 5 entries