Pastene Building

152 Franklin Street | Tribeca | built 1891

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

  1. 1891

    John B. Snook & Sons design a seven-story Romanesque Revival loft for real estate operator John T. Williams

    Real estate operator John T. Williams paid $60,000 in June 1890 for two brick store-and-tenement buildings, then hired John B. Snook & Sons to replace them. The seven-story loft, finished in 1891, has two six-story arches framing cast-iron openings and a false loggia of squat brick pilasters at the top. The blog says the area was shifting from dry goods to produce.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1895

    April 5

    The U.S. agent for Hoff's malt extract accuses tenant Eisner & Mendelson of passing off a Newark-made substitute

    Eisner & Mendelson, wholesale drug importers occupying the building, sold Johann Hoff's Malt Extract. In 1895 Tarrant, the U.S. representative of the Hamburg manufacturer, sued the firm for counterfeiting. On April 5 Tarrant warned customers that the firm had admitted on a postal card that its Hoff's extract was made in Newark, New Jersey.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1906

    The widow of a Hungarian mineral-water bottler wins $31,030 against tenant Eisner & Mendelson

    In 1900 the widow of Andreas Saxlehner, who bottled the Hungarian mineral water Hunyadi Matyas, sued Eisner & Mendelson for imitating the bottles and labels of her water. She asked for $30,000 in damages, and in 1906 a court awarded her $31,030.36. The blog suggests the bad publicity and fines may have driven the firm from Franklin Street, after which Western Union took the building for storage.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1908

    December 8

    A pre-dawn fire gutting the building becomes the first big test of the city's high-pressure hydrants

    Fire broke out on the first floor around 4:10 a.m. and was raging by the time it was discovered. The blaze was the first major test of the city's new high-pressure hydrant service, with fifteen lines pouring about 9,000 gallons of water a minute. Papers still called the building a total loss, with damage estimated at $250,000, but its heavy masonry walls survived.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 1914

    May 9

    Italian grocery importer P. Pastene & Co. signs a lease that gives the building its name

    On May 9, 1914 P. Pastene & Co., importers of Italian groceries founded by Peter Pastene in 1874, signed a long lease for the whole rebuilt building. A 1927 sale forced it out, but in 1956 it bought the building and came back. Its lettering over the entrance gave the building its informal name, and the firm stayed until a 1994 conversion to lofts.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

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