Empire Wagon Works Building

194 Elizabeth Street | Nolita | built 1900

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. 1874

    February 27

    Jonas Stoltz converts the Elizabeth Street stable into a bakery

    After the Civil War, Jonas Stoltz was an undertaker at 237 Bowery and also kept a stable at 194 Elizabeth Street, on land leased from Catharine L. Van Rensselaer. On February 27, 1874, she transferred title of 194 and 196 Elizabeth Street to him, and he converted the stable to a bakery. In June 1875 he advertised it for sale because of illness, noting it baked over 15 barrels a week, and it became Ward's Bakery.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1881

    December

    Shoemakers from Salerno live among the Irish tenants as Italians begin to replace them

    In 1876 the upper floors held eleven families, mostly Irish-born, with laborers, tailors, soap-makers and a painter among them. In December 1881 The Sun described a small group from Salerno living near Elizabeth and Spring Streets, almost all tailors and shoemakers. Two shoemakers from that group lived at 194 Elizabeth Street, showing Irish tenants giving way to Italians in this part of what became Little Italy.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1893

    The Happersbergers' wagon works becomes the Empire Wagon Works

    Around 1885 the building was leased and converted into a wagon factory for Philip Happersberger and his son Fred. Philip bought it in March 1893 for $20,000 and appears to have retired that year, when Fred renamed the firm the Empire Wagon Works. Around 1900 it employed ten men working 59 hours a week, and in 1903 a trade journal praised its bottlers' wagons.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1999

    Peasant, an Italian restaurant, opens in a former garage on the ground floor

    The ground floor became a garage in the 1960s, and in 1999 it was converted for Peasant, an Italian restaurant opened by John LaFemina and chef Frank DeCarlo. LaFemina recalled walking into an old garage on Elizabeth Street that neighbors used for oil changes and secondhand parts. The building was renovated again in 2009 and 2010, with Peasant still on the ground floor.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

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