A. A. Low Building
167 John Street | also 89 South Street | Financial District | built 1980
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.
- 1833
Abiel Abbot Low goes to Canton and builds the China trade firm that fills this building
At 22, Low left Salem, Massachusetts, for Canton, where he clerked for the American firm Russell & Co.; his uncle William was a partner there. In Canton he came to know the merchant Houqua well, a tie that greatly helped his success in the China trade. Back in New York he started his own business in 1841 with offices on Fletcher Street, moved to 115 South Street in 1847, and settled on John Street in 1850.
- 1850
A. A. Low & Brother moves into its new counting-house on Burling Slip
Mary, the widow of George Codwise Jr., sold this part of his property to the Low family in 1849, and the brothers Abiel Abbot and Josiah Low had a five-story counting-house built here for their firm the next year. The Landmarks Preservation Commission says the building stood as a symbol of the firm's success and importance. A. A. Low & Brother, an export firm, stayed on the premises well past the end of the 19th century.
- 1850
The A. A. Low Building has a first floor of cast iron from Daniel Badger's Architectural Iron Works
The five-story building, eight windows wide, has a brownstone front now covered in stucco and a first floor of cast iron made by Daniel D. Badger's Architectural Iron Works. The Landmarks Preservation Commission says the cast-iron front dates from before 1865 but cannot tell whether it was part of the original facade. Its paneled square columns once had elaborate Corinthian capitals.
- 1863
Low becomes president of the New York Chamber of Commerce
Abiel Abbot Low, whose firm worked from this building from 1850 into the 1900s, was elected head of the Chamber of Commerce in 1863 and served until 1866. During the Civil War he spoke for city merchants against British support for Confederate commerce raiders. Two of his clipper ships, the Contest and the Jacob Bell, were destroyed by Confederate privateers.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1991
The South Street Seaport Museum has the Low Building restored as its own offices and archives
Architects Jan Hird Pokorny Associates carried out a restoration in 1991 that adapted the building for the museum's use. Before then, the Baltimore Copper Paint Company had used it from 1965 to 1974 as offices and storage for marine paints. Today it holds the museum's administrative offices, collections storage and archives.
Source: southstreetseaportmuseum.org
Nearby
- A. A. Low Building171 John Street | 5 entries
- 165 John Street4 entries
- 89 South Street1 entry
- Schermerhorn Row, No. 8 Fulton Street8 Fulton Street | 3 entries
- Schermerhorn Row, No. 6 Fulton Street6 Fulton Street | 3 entries
- South Street Seaport Museum12 Fulton Street | 4 entries