206 Front Street

also 207 Front Street | Financial District | built 1983

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.

1799
Grocer Matthew Howell opens a shop and family home at 206 Front Street around 1798-99
The Landmarks Preservation Commission cites 206 Front Street, built about 1798, as an example of an early house-and-store building near the seaport. The grocer Matthew Howell first occupied it, running his shop at street level with a separate narrow Federal-style doorway leading to the family quarters. The family's sitting or dining room was typically behind the shop with bedrooms upstairs, and such buildings later often became boarding houses.
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
1880
A fire in 1880 leads to a rebuilt facade and a lowered roof at 206 Front Street
An 1855 print shows 206 Front Street as a three-story Federal building with a paneled doorway framed by fluted pilasters and two narrow dormer windows in its pitched roof. After a fire in 1880 the building was substantially remodeled: the roof was lowered and the front wall was entirely rebuilt, which is why the Federal details no longer show.
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

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