17 South William Street

also 53 Stone Street | Financial District | built 1838

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.

1839
An importers' store and loft building goes up here after the Great Fire
John R. Pitkin owned the lot at the time of the 1835 fire. David Lee bought it in 1838, and by 1839 a store and loft building, then numbered 51-53 Stone Street, stood here. Importing firms occupied it, first Harvey & Slagg and later Henschen & Unkart and G. J. Bechtel. David Lee and the Huffer family held it for long periods.
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
1905
Merchant Henry Schaefer has Edward Tilton turn the building toward South William Street
Henry Schaefer, a South William Street merchant, bought the site in 1905 and at once hired architect Edward L. Tilton to remodel it. Tilton gave the building a new eighteen-foot-wide neo-Renaissance front on South William Street, with limestone banding and slender turrets beside an iron-trimmed gable. One carved spandrel is dated 1905.
“In 1905 the site was acquired by Henry Schaefer, a South William Street merchant who immediately commissioned architect Edward L. Tilton to remodel and reorient the building…”
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

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