S. B. Althause Building

19 Mercer Street | SoHo | built 1861

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. 1861

    Iron founder Samuel Althause replaces his Mercer Street home with a store building

    Samuel Birdsall Althause ran S. B. Althause & Co., an early Manhattan foundry that had grown out of his grandfather's blacksmith shop and stood across the street at Nos. 20-22. He lived at No. 19 until about 1859, when he moved his family to Brooklyn. In 1860 he tore the house down and put up a five-story commercial building, finished in 1861, whose architect is unrecorded.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1861

    Althause's stone facade at 19 Mercer Street is unusually sophisticated for its block

    The Landmarks Preservation Commission calls the 1860-61 building unusually impressive for Mercer Street, since comparable stone buildings usually stood on more prosperous streets. Heavy rusticated piers rise two stories at a time, grouping the three bays into two tall units in the "sperm candle" style. The simple cast-iron storefront has Corinthian columns, and its flanking pilasters have lost their capitals.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  3. 1861

    Hat makers Griswold & Sheldon are among the first tenants

    William C. Griswold and Julius Sheldon ran a wholesale and hat-making business here; Sheldon also held a patent for a hat-blocking machine. The firm declared bankruptcy in 1867. Hats and apparel became the trades of the building: in 1883 brothers Herman and Aaron Levy began making boys' clothing here, and their firm failed in March 1890 after heavy losses on horse racing.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1975

    September 25

    Soho Rep opens its first season at 19 Mercer Street with Key Largo

    Jerry Engelbach and Marlene Swartz founded the Soho Repertory Theatre in 1975 and made the building's ground floor, a former hat warehouse, its first home. The company opened with Maxwell Anderson's Key Largo, then concentrated on rarely staged classics by writers such as Aristophanes, Moliere and Beckett. It stayed on Mercer Street until 1985, when it moved to a theater at Bellevue Hospital.

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

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