Bear Mill Manufacturing Building

211 West Broadway | also 120 Franklin Street | Tribeca | built 1882

Open on the map5 entries

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

  1. 1882

    J. Morgan Slade designs a neo-Grec loft for Theodore Rogers, later extended along West Broadway

    Theodore B. Rogers commissioned architect J. Morgan Slade in 1881 to design a six-story store and loft building on the northeast corner where Franklin Street meets West Broadway, replacing three frame dwellings. It ran 60 feet along Franklin Street and 50 along West Broadway. In 1901 Charles R. Cobbs hired Schweitzer & Diemer to extend it about 25 feet north, repeating the design.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1890

    January 29

    Dress labels bearing John Wanamaker's name reveal a smuggling scheme at a firm here

    In January 1890 customs seized two packages of ribbon dress labels reading "John Wanamaker Costumes, Philadelphia." They were from the Artistic Weaving Company of Saxony, addressed to Adolph Kluge at its Franklin Street office. The labels bore the name of Postmaster-General John Wanamaker, and the Evening World asked on January 29 whether that name had been used to slip foreign dry goods through the mails. The firm is not listed in the building afterward.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1894

    November 1

    The American Enameling Company opens its showroom with an auction of 48,000 pieces

    A tenant outside the dry goods trade arrived on November 1, 1894, when the American Enameling Company opened its new showrooms by auction. The sale offered 48,000 pieces of gray enameled teapots, coffee pots, kettles, wash basins and saucepans.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1909

    June 1

    Detectives catch four men who stole $50,000 of linen meant for Bear Mill

    By early June 1909 about $50,000 in linen shipments for Bear Mill Manufacturing had gone missing before reaching Franklin Street. Detectives watched the Hudson River piers, and on June 1 a young man showed a clerk at the New Bedford Steamboat Company pier an order for a case of linen. The clerk handed over a $1,800 case, and the four thieves were caught within a few blocks.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 1995

    Robert De Niro and Drew Nieporent open the restaurant Layla on the ground floor

    Later the ground floor housed Layla, a restaurant that opened in 1995 and was owned by Robert De Niro and Drew Nieporent. The New York Times, on November 29, described its decor as a Middle Eastern fantasy, with scenes of belly dancers and water-pipe smokers and mosaics of pottery shards. The upper floors had become ten residences in 1994.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

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