Hammacher Schlemmer's Bowery store

209 Bowery | Lower East Side | built 1900

Open on the map3 entries

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

1. 1848

   A Bowery hardware emporium that became Hammacher Schlemmer opens for cabinetmakers and piano builders

   The shop that grew into Hammacher Schlemmer opened on the Bowery in 1848, selling hard-to-find tools and supplies to cabinetmakers and piano builders. William Schlemmer, nephew of one owner, began selling tools in front at age 12 for $2 a week and later purchased his uncle's share. Albert Hammacher, a German immigrant who had likewise begun there as a boy, became a principal. Ephemeral New York shows photographs of the store at 209 Bowery.

   Source: Ephemeral New York

2. 1859

   Albert Hammacher invests $5,000 and the Bowery store moves to 209, where it stays until 1904

   Wikipedia says the hardware business opened in 1848 at 221 Bowery, owned by Charles Tollner and R. Stern, and moved to 209 Bowery in 1859, staying until 1904. That year Albert Hammacher put in $5,000 and the firm became C. Tollner and A. Hammacher. After Tollner died in 1867, 26-year-old William Schlemmer entered a partnership with Hammacher and Peter F. Taaks, and the name became Hammacher Schlemmer & Co. in 1883.

   Source: Wikipedia

3. 1904

   The company leaves the Bowery for Fourth Avenue, then moves uptown to East 57th Street in 1926

   After more than half a century on the Bowery, the firm moved in 1904 to Fourth Avenue and 13th Street, then in 1926 to East 57th Street, which was newly fashionable. Along the way it changed its name and shifted from hardware to novelties, selling horseless carriages, pop-up toasters and electric razors. Ephemeral New York noted in 2018 that it was still on East 57th Street.

   Source: Ephemeral New York

Further reading

• The Bowery roots of a famous uptown gift storeEphemeral New York

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