The Odeon

145 West Broadway | also 72 Thomas Street, 143 West Broadway | Tribeca | built 1915

Open on the map3 entries

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

  1. 1888

    Wholesale grocer E. Christian Korner builds a six-story store at 145 West Broadway

    Read more

    In 1888 the wholesale grocer Ernest Christian Korner had architect William Kuhles design this Romanesque Revival store and loft building of brick, stone and terra cotta. The terra-cotta plaque on the second story reads 45/&/47, the building's address before West Broadway was renumbered around 1900. In the 1890s the scale makers Fairbanks Co. were tenants, followed by shoe companies in the 1920s.

    “A terra-cotta plaque at the second story, reading "45/&/47," refers to the original address of the building prior to the renumbering of West Broadway…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1932

    145 and 147 West Broadway are joined inside, with Towers Cafeteria on the ground floor

    The five-story cast-iron building next door at 147 West Broadway (72 Thomas Street) was joined internally to No. 145 in 1932, and the two now share a tax lot. The Towers Restaurant & Cafeteria occupied the ground floor of No. 147 from the 1930s through the 1950s, and in the 1960s it spread into the ground floor of No. 145 as well.

    “In 1932, it was joined to 145 West Broadway. Tenants at No. 147 have included the Office Equipment Service Co. and the Towers Restaurant & Cafeteria…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  3. 1980

    Lynn Wagenknecht and Keith and Brian McNally open the Odeon in the old Towers Cafeteria space

    The Odeon opened in 1980 in the space the Towers Cafeteria had occupied. Keith McNally and Lynn Wagenknecht had come up with the idea on a vacation in Paris in 1979. The restaurant's exterior appeared on the cover of the first edition of Jay McInerney's novel Bright Lights, Big City, and the bartenders Toby Cecchini and Melissa Huffsmith-Roth, who worked there in the 1980s, are credited with inventing the Cosmopolitan cocktail.

    Source: Wikipedia

Nearby

All 564 buildings with stories in Tribeca