Nathaniel Fisher & Co. Building

146 Duane Street | Tribeca | built 1860

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The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

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.

  1. 1860

    Dry-goods partners Benkard and Hutton build the five-story marble building at 146 Duane

    Built in 1859-60 for James Benkard and Benjamin Hutton, it was the westernmost of three buildings at 142 to 146 Duane that they developed together. Its facade is marble, now painted, with triangular pediments and quoins, and the cast-iron storefront bears the mark of J.B. & W.W. Cornell & Co. It stands on part of the Congress Steam Sugar Refinery site. First tenants were silk importers Auffmordt, Hessenberg & Co. and dry-goods dealers Fairchild & Fanshawe.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1889

    Shoe merchant Nathaniel Fisher lists 146 Duane Street as his business address

    Nathaniel Fisher founded his shoe and boot company around 1870, after nearly twenty years in the shoe trade, and by 1889 his sons Irving R. and Nathaniel Campbell Fisher were running it. The city directory that year lists Nathaniel as a shoe merchant at 146 Duane. The firm made ladies' and misses' shoes and boots.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1894

    November 10

    A misdirected alarm delays firefighters 90 minutes at a top-floor rubber-goods blaze

    Just after midnight on November 10, 1894, fire started on the top floor, where rubber goods were stored. Fisher & Co. had installed a fire alarm, but the Automatic Fire-Alarm Company's dispatcher got the address wrong, and firefighters arrived about an hour and a half late. The fire was not out until 4 a.m. and gutted the top floor, while the cast-iron facade came through unharmed. The New York Times called Fisher one of the oldest shoe firms in America.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1940

    Nathaniel Fisher & Co. installs a round clock that still survives at 146 Duane Street

    The Landmarks Preservation Commission reports that a round metal and glass clock was installed at the second story in 1940 for Nathaniel Fisher & Co. The clock survives today. The commission says the shoe firm rented space in the building from the 1890s through the 1950s.

    “An historic round metal and glass clock, installed in 1940, survives at the second story. The decorative clock at the second story was installed in 1940 for Nathaniel Fisher & Co.”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  5. 1953

    Nathaniel Fisher & Co., a shoe firm at 146 Duane Street for decades, closes

    Even after both Fisher brothers had died, Nathaniel in 1923 and Irving in 1925, the company kept making and selling shoes at 146 Duane for almost three more decades. It closed in 1953, after its windows had shown high-button shoes in the 1890s, patent leather pumps in the 1920s and saddle shoes in the 1950s. Other manufacturers and companies used the building for decades afterward. In 2006 United American Land converted it to rental residences and restored the facade.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

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