Substation No. 2

173 Spring Street | also 88 Thompson Street | SoHo | built 1901

Open on the map4 entries

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. 1898

    Railroad engineer George H. Pegram, designer of the substation, becomes chief engineer of the Manhattan Elevated

    Born in Council Bluffs, Iowa in 1855, George H. Pegram earned a degree in civil engineering. In 1893 he became Chief Engineer of the Union Pacific Railroad. In 1898 the Manhattan Elevated Railway Company named him its chief engineer, and he designed its massive powerhouse at 74th Street and the East River, dated 1902. He also designed this substation on Spring Street.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1901

    July

    Manhattan Railway files plans for a power substation to replace two old Spring Street houses

    In July 1901 George Pegram filed plans for three electric substations serving the Manhattan Railway Company's Sixth and Ninth Avenue elevated lines, among them a four-story brick building at 173-175 Spring Street. The stations were meant to convert the current from the company's main powerhouse at 74th Street and the East River into power for the trains. They replaced three-story brick houses from a row that had begun going up on the block around 1818 and had long since become shops and workshops.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1938

    December 4

    The Sixth Avenue El closes, leaving Substation 2 with nothing to power

    The city paid $12.5 million for the Sixth Avenue El, buying it from the Manhattan Railway Company's bondholders in 1938, after the first stage of the Sixth Avenue subway had opened in 1936. The line shut down on December 4, 1938, and crews tore it down within the year. Without the El the substation had no purpose, and its heavy equipment was dismantled and carted out.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1964

    The emptied substation becomes a lumber store, and its upper floors gain a bold mural

    In 1964 the building became a lumber store occupying the first floor and mezzanine, with the upper floors recorded as vacant. The Gem Lumber Company was running the store by 1979. A bold mural on the upper floors became a Spring Street landmark of its own, and the lumber store closed in 2015.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

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